When pop stars read serious books: what book clubs mean now

Once upon a time, the book club was a quiet affair. A circle of friends, a bottle of wine, and a novel discussed with enthusiasm or polite disagreement. Then came Oprah, and everything changed. Her televised picks turned literary taste into a shared national ritual, making authors overnight sensations and cementing the idea that reading could be collective, not solitary. 

But today’s book club looks very different. When Dua Lipa recommends This House of Grief to her 90 million followers, or Florence Welch posts her annotated copy of The Bell Jar, something deeper is at play. Reading has become performance, identity, and, unexpectedly, power.

From Oprah to Dua: the evolution of the modern book club

The modern book club sits at the intersection of cultural credibility and social media influence. Oprah’s picks once dominated the literary landscape because they came from a place of genuine curiosity. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine refined that model, focusing on accessible, female-led narratives and turning them into an engine of adaptation-ready bestsellers. But Dua Lipa’s Service95 newsletter has changed the tempo again. Her selections—books like Helen Garner’s This House of Grief, Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain, or Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water—signal something more layered: an attempt to merge pop culture and literary seriousness, to prove that intellect can be glamorous.

Florence Welch’s reading lists follow a similar rhythm but lean poetic. Her posts, filled with underlined Woolf passages and coffee-stained Plath pages, offer less curation and more communion. It’s not a brand, it’s a feeling—a shared sense of reverence. For her fans, reading becomes a way of stepping into Florence’s aesthetic world, where melancholy and meaning coexist.

The age of the influencer intellectual

In a digital culture obsessed with curation, what we read has become a new form of self-expression. On Instagram and TikTok, books are props and proclamations, extensions of personality. The book club, once private, is now a broadcast—a performance of taste. When a celebrity posts a reading list, they aren’t just recommending books; they’re crafting a worldview.

There’s both sincerity and strategy in this. Celebrities like Dua Lipa and Kaia Gerber are not only boosting sales for literary authors but reframing the reading experience as socially aspirational. Garner, Cusk, and hooks find new readers through aesthetics that make seriousness cool again. Yet, this also raises a subtle question: when reading becomes lifestyle branding, does authenticity get lost in the process?

Who gets to lead the conversation?

The celebrity book club has undeniable reach, but it risks homogenising taste. When certain books are elevated for their photogenic covers or fashionable resonance, quieter, stranger, or more diverse works can fall through the cracks. It’s not malicious—it’s algorithmic. Social media rewards what fits the grid.

That said, not all visibility is bad visibility. Many readers discover serious literature precisely because a familiar face recommended it. And for every sleek celebrity club, there’s an independent counterpart doing something equally powerful. Queer-led, diaspora-led, and grassroots book communities—like @TheBlackGirlBookClub or @TheFeministLibrary—are reclaiming reading spaces as sites of dialogue and resistance, not just display.

The best celebrity book clubs to follow in 2025

If you want to join the literary conversation where pop culture meets intellect, here are some of the most interesting celebrity and independent book clubs worth watching this year:

1. Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club – Thoughtful, global, and literary. Expect serious reads that challenge and inspire, from This House of Grief to Shuggie Bain.

2. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine – Championing women’s stories, this club has made countless novels household names and film adaptations.

3. Florence Welch’s Reading List – Dreamy, poetic, and emotionally resonant, her recommendations lean towards introspective modern classics.

4. Kaia Gerber’s Library Book Club – A quieter but growing space where literary fiction and poetry meet visual culture.

5. The Black Girl Book Club (@TheBlackGirlBookClub) – A vibrant community spotlighting Black authors and voices often overlooked by mainstream lists.

6. The Feminist Library (@TheFeministLibrary) – A London-based collective bringing readers together through activism, zines, and radical reading lists.

These clubs show how book culture has evolved—less about ivory-tower elitism, more about accessibility and influence. Together, they represent the new spectrum of literary community, where a pop star’s post can sit comfortably beside a grassroots reading circle.

The book club as cultural mirror

Perhaps the question isn’t whether celebrity book clubs are good or bad, but what they reveal about how we read now. They reflect a culture hungry for connection, longing to appear thoughtful in public, and genuinely moved by the rediscovery of serious literature in unexpected places. Pop stars reading serious books blur the line between authenticity and aspiration, but they also remind us that reading itself—quiet, reflective, intimate—still holds power.

Beyond the hashtag

The modern book club has become many things: a marketing tool, a creative community, a digital salon. But beneath the filters and endorsements lies something surprisingly old-fashioned—a desire to be changed by what we read and to share that change with others. Whether through Florence Welch’s annotated Woolf or Dua Lipa’s curated newsletter, the act of recommending a book remains one of the purest gestures of connection.

So when pop stars read serious books, maybe it’s not just performance. Maybe it’s permission. A reminder that reading isn’t elitist or exclusive—it’s expansive, alive, and still capable of making us feel seen.