The American Library Association has for nearly 40 years been putting out “Read” posters featuring celebrities and books. Lots of us remember these from school and libraries—my elementary school had the Shaq one guarding the reference books section.
When I set out to compile a list of these posters, my initial thought was to gather all of them, but I quickly found that to be impossible: There are so many of them. Just, so many. And until some enterprising library sciences student puts together the definitive archive, we’re stuck scouring the ALA website and eBay poster reseller pages.
Out of what I was able to uncover and find a high-ish quality images of online, I picked my 100 favorites that I’ll be ranking based on these criteria:
Aesthetics — Would I be happy to see this in my library? Is it interesting to look at? Does it tell a story?
Book Selection — Is the book the celeb is toting good? Is it a good recommendation for a library?
How Normally Are They Holding The Book — This might seem like a strange metric, but just wait: a lot of these celebrities are posing with books in baffling ways.
Does It Make Me Want To Read — Ultimately, these posters have one job to do.
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100. Channing Tatum
Was this photo taken under duress? Or right before an elevator door closed? How did they manage to make Channing Tatum uncharismatic? Holding up Peter Pan like it’s the ID placard in a mug shot? A backdrop of stars and bubbles? Does anyone else smell toast?
99. Mel Gibson
Sinister! You know he has the absolute worst take on 1984 too.
98. John Cena
This poster’s not bad, but mostly it’s not anything. Cena looks like a CEO in the third act of a feel-good movie who just learned the power of love thanks to a gang of scrappy kids. This whole poster looks like it’s afraid of hot sauce.
97. Ben Roethlisberger
The one thing I can say in this one’s favor is that The Giving Tree is a classic, albeit safe pick. But boy, this is one of the more wooden ways to hold a book that I’ve seen: gripping it too forcefully on the bottom, and the thumb on top of the book is particularly bizarre.
The nonsensical football play doodles all around Roethlisberger are really trying to do something, but they can’t add any dynamism to this pose. Did he do the doodles himself? Is that his real handwriting? Is this, technically, a smile?
96. Eva Mendez
Hopefully the real light in the attic is ALA’s designers finally having a design idea that isn’t “cover the poster with curlicues.”
95. Orlando Bloom
You know how when you’re a certain kind of bookish kid, there’s about ten years between your tweens and twenties when for the holidays, you’ll get gifted almost exclusively fancy notebooks?
Well, this picture looks like me at 14, posing with my brand new, leather-bound journal with a button stud closure and uncut page edges, so that my mom can send my aunt an email on AOL with the subject line: “he loves it!”
94. Nathan Fillion
To me, Fillion always gives off the vibes of a weird neighbor kid who is two grades above you and you can’t quite figure out his deal, and this picture of him looking up from a book called Awakening on Orbis 4 isn’t helping dissuade me of that preconception.
93. Milo Ventimiglia
I know he wanted to promote the book he adapted into a movie, but you’ve got an actor here who played one of TV’s great book boyfriends: Gilmore Girls’ Jess. This is a wasted opportunity! Put him in one of Jess’ little jackets, or sitting on one of those Stars Hollow benches, maybe during the 6:00 AM rush when Rory’s going to school and everyone in town is not only awake but running an errand.
Are you really telling me no one at the American Library Association is a Gilmore Girls fan?
92. Karamo Brown
I’m not surprised that a TV self-help guru picked a self-help book—and it’s not the only self-help pick I came across on these posters by a longshot—but aren’t these geared towards kids? Should kids be reading self-help books? I guess what I’m saying is that I’m afraid to meet the 12-year-old who’s trying to “change their life” with a book based on a Navy Admiral’s viral graduation speech.
91. Keira Knightley
A fantastic book choice, but I have to dock this one because Knightley’s holding this book like it’s a rescue kitten.
90. Sarah Jessica Parker
Nothing much to write home about here, but between this and Parker’s NYT Tops o’ The Century ballot, it seems like she’s got pretty good taste in books.
89. Bill Gates
Judging by this weird, three-fingers-per-side-of-the-book reading style and his wooden facial expression, Gates probably isn’t reading but rather fantasizing about ways to evade antitrust law to monopolize another industry.
88. Lily Collins
Why do so many of these celebrities need two hands to hold books? Do they need to drink some more milk or something so they can handle these hardcovers?
87. Common
I think they could have done better than this Old-Navy-ad aesthetic, but all in all, this one’s not bad. Gotta dock it a few spots though, for Common’s odd choice to fully extend all his fingers while holding the book, a style I’m calling “Invisible Finger Splints”
86. Taylor Swift
Look I know enough to not speak ill of Taylor Swift online, so I’ll just say that I’m very curious what’s behind picking The Giver — I’d love to read the book report.
“Holding a book open as if reading” tends to be the most natural pose for a celebrity on these posters, but somehow Swift has found a bizarre way to do it by not really holding the book as much as pinning it between her hands.
85. Rupert Grint
This one wants to be edgy so badly, but this picture makes Grint look like he says things like, “Do you know beer makes holes in your brain” at a bar.
84. Landon Donovan
Appreciate that they’ve got him outside for this one, ensconced in his soccer, but it won’t make up for Donovan’s cradling of this poor book like it’s a sack of groceries.
What really kills me about this one, though, is that he’s opened just the cover, to take a peek at the inside jacket flap. Donovan is threading an incredible needle here by posing like he’s reading, while never getting beyond the marketing synopsis.
83. America Ferrera
I think it’s the fault of some of the artificial shadows and the way she’s holding her lower hand so limply, but it really looks like Ferrera is holding a print-out of the cover and not a real book.
82. Oprah Winfrey (I)
As befitting her status as a kingmaker in the book world, I found three Oprah posters, the most featuring the same celebrity by far.
This is the worst of the bunch: very uninspiring and the most “cheap sweater catalogue.” Having her pose with so many fake books seems like it’s undermining the point of this whole series—unless there are sickos who are borrowing a stack of red library books just to use them as background for their photoshoots?
81. Michelle Pfeiffer and Friends
This one is dynamic, but far too unsettling. It’s pegged to 1995’s Dangerous Minds, in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays a white savior teacher in a high school for kids from East Palo Alto. The Times review features the line, “the movie, with the incongruous slickness of a typical Simpson-Bruckheimer production, turns [pfeiffer’s character] into a visiting beauty queen whose noblesse oblige knows no bounds”—you know the kind of movie. I’m sure this poster was meant to look inspiring, but it just looks a little sinister. It feels like the “friends” in the background are in trouble, and no one looks happy to be there.
And a pretty unnatural way to hold a book—I’d guess that she laced her fingers together and then a PA stuck the book in there right before they snapped the shot.
80. Tim Allen
Not much to write home about with this one. Makes sense that the ALA would include Allen at the height of his Home Improvement fame, before the cocaine-smuggler-turned-comedian made one more pivot to right-wing crank.
This is one of the weirder ways to pose with a book that I came across in my survey, a style that I’m titling “The Fragile Masculinity.”
79. Christina Ricci
Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead?! Christina, no! And standing in front of this anxiety-inducing background that looks like the set from a middle school production of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, while holding the book like it’s something she has to protect while fleeing? This is a troubling image!
I had to get to the bottom of this and I regret to inform you that Ricci is, unfortunately, an earnest worshipper at the Ayn Shrine.
78. Ice Cube
A fun book pick here, but a very uninspired pose. Plus the background looks like something you’d see on the wall of the worst barbecue restaurant you’ve ever been to.
77. Kirk Cameron
This one seems familiar, and I wonder if it was in my library growing up. Relatedly, I wonder if I got my childhood obsessions with C.S. Lewis and little turtlenecks from this poster.
76. Barack Obama
A very young Obama here, maybe early in his first term? The choice of Team of Rivals is interesting to me, and I’m not sure it’s communicating what he wants it to, especially in hindsight. I am sure, though, that the Pod Save guys spent hours agonizing over this book choice.
75. Margaret Cho
A pretty lackluster design, but what I like about this one is that Cho is holding a manuscript by Damien Echols, who was a member of the West Memphis Three and was on death row at the time. Cho was advocating for Echols and trying to help publish his writing. Cool of her to use her Read poster for advocacy!
74. Brandy Norwood
The illustrated chair is a nice touch, but I kind of hoped for more from Brandy.
73. Emeril Lagasse
I have to give the ALA credit for not using Lagasse’s “BAM!” catchphrase that was everywhere at the time, but holding up this book like it’s a box of rotini is an awkward look.
72. Salma Hayek
Some fun design choices here, but it can’t make up for a real pervasive somberness here. This whole poster is giving off too much of an assigned-reading vibe to really click for me.
71. Bernie Mac
This is a nice photo, but I don’t love that his book pick is a teen’s guide to the Bible called Armed & Dangerous.
70. Cesar Millan
I really don’t like the choice to use a Read poster recommendation slot on some New Thought, self-improvement book—it’s uninspiring and depressing. However, this one’s getting a big boost in the ratings because Millan and the dog are reading the book together. It’s very funny to imagine this pitbull reading the book and finding the power within herself to never poop on the rug again because she’s realized that intention is a field of energy that she can access to begin co-creating her life.
69. Derek Jeter and Jeter’s Leaders
As a New Yorker, I’m ashamed to say that seeing this poster in 2024 is how I found out about the existence of Jeter Publishing, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
68. Alec Baldwin
Makes me nostalgic for the days when Alec Baldwin was fun. Standing in the water by a boat and reading Huck Finn—idyllic, no complaints here.
Have to dock this one for the way he’s cuffed his jeans though: rolling them up inside the leg is disturbing behavior.
67. The Cast of The Big Bang Theory
There are a few ensemble posters like this—the cast of Buffy has one with the tagline “Slay Ignorance at the Library,” but I had to nix it from the list because it confusingly features no books in the shot.
This one is pretty lame. Some weird book choices, but what I dislike most is that I can’t shake the feeling that these were all individual shots that they Photoshopped into one group image—unless this cast is truly made up of some people who are three feet tall and some people who are nine feet tall.
66. Phil Collins
I had no idea that Phil Collins was such a lifelong Alamo guy and that he had donated a massive collection of artifacts to The Alamo Museum. A little weird, if you ask me.
65. Britney Spears
This poster looks like what it felt like to be in middle school in the early 2000s.
64. William Hurt
William Hurt is one of our finest actors whose name is also a sentence fragment. Here, Hurt has the expression of a beleaguered father who is struggling to make peace with the fact that he accidentally ordered gigantic blocks instead of normal-sized ones and his whole family has been roasting him for hours.
63. Matt Dillon
A very standard poster, but getting a major boost in the rankings for picking Orwell’s non-fiction, which I’ve always felt is much better than his fiction.
62. Ewan McGregor
I’ve never seen someone read Beatrix Potter and look this devious. Is Ewan thrilled that the rabbits are robbing all of Mr. McGregor’s veggies, and think it’s radically subversive to think that? “You’ll consider me quite mad for saying so, but I quite like these furry little Robin Hoods!”
61. Michael Bolton
Why are so many celebrities defaulting to coy/beguiling for these posters? I think we need to commission a psychological study to look into it.
(If you have a higher-res image of this poster please send it along!)
60. Jimmy Smits
Another one with an unsettling edge to it. Smits is staring down the viewer with a look that says, “Oh yes, I recognize you, and I’m trying to decide whether or not to bring up all the ways you’ve wronged me.”
59. Fabio
A surprisingly dull photo from literature’s most famous hunk. I wonder what the internal ALA conversations were like about whether or not they could show one or more of Fabio’s nipples. The choice of Jaws is a nice surprise, though.
And hey, you can get this one on a shirt.
58. Daniel Radcliffe
Straight down the middle here—no big choices means no big errors. This one gets a bump because I found out that this is a very earnest recommendation: Radcliffe genuinely loves The Master & Margarita, and even visited Bulgakov’s apartment on his 21st birthday. It’s nice to see a celebrity who likes books but has not started a monetizable book club!
57. Sean Connery (I)
Unlike Connery’s performance as Bond, this poster is not top of the heap. I actually think the school-photo background is working here, but I have to dock it for a strange way of holding a book, though it’s not the most bizarre I’ve seen on these posters. “The Spirit of Scotland” is a bit on the nose, too, but that seems to be something of the Read poster house style.
But Sean-heads: don’t worry, Connery will have another chance to redeem himself.
56. George Burns
A fittingly classy poster from a great comedian. Feels like the ALA staff were probably behind this pick, because I don’t know how many kids were clamoring for more George Burns at their local library.
55. Antonio Banderas
What? Do I have something on my face? Antonio, tell me, do I? Or in my teeth? Come on don’t just look at me like that, give me one of your huge rings so I can see my reflection.
54. Denzel Washington
“Okay, let’s try one more Denzel, and this time, give me a look that says ‘I’ll be darned, they greened the ham, too!’”
“…Wow, that’s… perfect.”
53. John Leguizamo
I was ready to dunk on this one for the way he’s lounging on top of the book like he’s confused it for the railing, but I looked into the book he’s holding, and it seems like a really fascinating history. I’ve got it on hold at the library, and send my apologies to John Leguizamo.
52. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
A great basketball player who became a great writer with great politics, and he was in the writers room of the Veronica Mars reboot. You don’t get much better than Abdul-Jabbar, folks.
51. Melissa Etheridge
I love the contrast here between the extremely basic, first-thought guitar background, and Etheridge’s excellent choice to pose with one of the most beautiful and sexy books I’ve ever read.
50. Dolly Parton
A dynamic design, and two classic books. As a side note, I’m going to start a conspiracy theory that this poster is confirmation that the only possible real identity of Jolene from Parton’s song is either The Very Hungry Caterpillar or The Little Engine That Could.
49. The Cast of Third Watch
I’ve never seen this show, but some pretty good book picks here! Everyone’s looking pretty normal and approachable, despite the visible guns and NYPD uniforms.
48. Whoopi Goldberg
A little awkward, perhaps, but this one has a nice simplicity, and I’m very drawn to the purples and greens. Sorry folks: I don’t have zingers for all of these.
47. Cindy Crawford
We’re starting to break into the higher echelons of the list, where things get more dynamic. I love this staging that gives the poster a bit of a backstory. Also, can you imagine how many middle school nerds were vindicated by seeing a supermodel with The Hobbit?
46. Allen Rickman
Rickman was a fantastic actor and seems like he was a genuinely nice guy, so I’m inclined to like this one. He looks very kind here and he’s holding the book normally—not something you can take for granted!
I do have to dock this one for putting Rickman in front of a field of rye that’s growing next to a brick wall. It’s both too literal and too confusing.
45. Muhammad Ali
Here’s my pitch: a TV show about an aging boxer and his Teddy Bear (voiced by Kristen Wiig) that talks only to him, a la Calvin and Hobbes, called Ali and Teddy. Together they navigate love, growing older, and life in the big city.
44. Ethan Hawke
The King of Gen X is characteristically cool here, even if this poster design reads a little too “steakhouse at the mall food court.” Bumping this one up for showcasing James Baldwin, always a great choice.
43. Bo Jackson
Jackson, one of America’s foremost jocks, absolutely shattering the stereotype that jocks hate books by looking so comfortable here. The next time someone tells you that jocks don’t read, and that a sporto could never relax fireside with a book and comfy socks, you point them to this poster.
42. Tacko Fall
Great design here: the blue background, blue shirt, and even the blue watchband are a nice contrast to the orange text and ball. Classic color-wheel stuff. And Fall is making this basketball look like a pretty comfy pillow, too.
41. Enrique Iglesias
Far too smoldering! I’m no prude but I’m sorry, you can’t put this in libraries.
Sensuality aside, picking Hemingway is fine—I guess it’s the era’s safe pick for A Serious And Important Book. But he’s holding it to his chest with just the tips of his fingers, yet another uniquely outrageous way to hold a book. But I guess it matches his pose? Bumping this one up the list for making so many bold choices with so little.
40. Tim Gunn
This is a sleeper hit. I really like styling Gunn’s name like a designer’s label, and choosing Thomas Mann’s dense, interwar meditation is really great—what a pick!
39. LL Cool J
By now we’ve seen a few celebs who have tried and failed with the “pointing at the book” pose, but LL Cool J is of course able to pull it off. A great ‘90s outfit, and he’s just looking effortlessly cool while showing off The Children’s Health Food Book, which seems to be out of print.
And finally, a celebrity that can manage to hold a book one-handed!
38. Jay Leno
I’ll lay my cards on the table here and say that I’m firmly on the Letterman side in the Letterman v. Leno late-night wars. But in the interest of science (which is what I’m doing here) I will charitably concede that there’s plenty to like. He’s holding the book like a normal person, it’s a good pick (looks like a Bantum Classic edition of A Christmas Carol), and an interesting composition (horizontal framing and a lush New York City background giving approachable ‘80s status, a comfy Gordon Gecko with beer instead of champagne).
But man that smug face really irks me.
37. Yoda
You’ve gotta figure that the Dagoba swamp smells incredibly nasty, but other than that, I like the image of Yoda strolling down to the bog to enjoy a book on whatever passes for a pleasant afternoon out there.
It’s kind of weird to see one of cinema’s top, green sci-fi guys with a hardcover though, and this poster reminds me of one of my lingering questions about the Star Wars universe: What’s the mass media situation like? How are people getting their news? Are there TV shows? How many publishing houses has their universe consolidated down to?
36. Jason Reynolds
The design is wanting, but what a great photo. And Reynolds is actually reading and making it look like a great time! It makes me want to read! Simple, but very effective.
35. Yo-Yo Ma
I don’t care if people say it’s weird, I think it’s sweet that Yo-Yo Ma reads a bedtime story to his cello every night.
34. Missy Elliott
Some of these posters succeed because they put you at ease. Elliott’s cool charisma is really working here—just lounging with a classic kids book is enough to sell me. Exactly the vibe you want in a library.
33. George Lopez
He’s on his way out of frame, rhyming nicely with the book’s title: “Check out the places I’m going!” This is the kind of dynamism I love to see—nothing terribly complicated or high concept, but after so many shots of celebs holding a book like it’s a box of cereal they’re advertising, it’s nice to see a poster with some motion and narrative. It’s a good book too!
32. Kristi Yamaguchi
The Danielle Steel, the pose, the flowing sheet. It’s fun and dynamic. What’s not to love?
31. Weird Al Yankovic
Of course Weird Al is going to have a lot of fun with his Read poster, but what the ALA really needs to do is commission Yankovic to do individual parody recreations of every single one of their posters.
30. Oprah Winfrey (II)
Oprah’s back, much higher in the rank this time. A great book, a natural pose, and the slight lean forward is giving this photo dynamism without much pageantry. Reminds me that I’m overdue to reread Beloved!
29. Xena
The ALA did a series of posters with Xena characters, and this is the best of the bunch. I think it should be a rule that if you hang this poster up in a library, you have to also have one scroll in your collection to show the kid who asks to see Xena’s scroll.
28. Steve Martin
Simple, and dare I say, elegant? A touch surreal too, which I think is fun for a library, which should feel like a place where your imagination can go wild.
27. Sean Connery (II)
As promised, there’s another Connery. This one isn’t the ALA, but come on, I have to include it. A well-appointed library? A kilt? Confidently using a chair wrong? This one is making it look like hanging out at the library is the coolest thing you can do.
26. Baryshnikov
I’m struggling to imagine a situation where you’d need a towel and a copy of Crime and Punishment, but I guess I just don’t know enough about ballet.
25. Spike Lee
I love when these posters get out of the studio and the yearbook photo backgrounds. And this one just works: Spike Lee, outside in Brooklyn, reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X is very cool. Don’t you want to read out on the stoop, too? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with these posters, folks!
24. Renee Fleming
This one’s so fun, I don’t even care that the rat is showing a disturbing amount of leg.
23. Geena Davis
Classy and elegant, and props to Davis for showcasing Susan Faludi’s landmark work of feminism.
22. Garfield
Garfield is George, Odie is Lennie, Jon is Curley, and the teddy bear is Curley’s wife.
21. Michael J. Fox
It doesn’t take a lot to make these posters look a little interesting: scatter around some dollar store decorations lit by a Miami Vice neon-blue stage light, and you’re already most of the way to a cool poster.
This is a slightly awkward way to be holding a book, but I’ll allow it since Fox is probably scared out of his wits from that spooky skeleton hand.
20. Stephen Hawking
Smiling triumphantly as you blast through space on a rocket-powered chair with a Marilyn Monroe biography close at hand? It’s situations like this that the phrase “dudes rock” was coined for.
19. Elvis Presley
What do you think is the funniest book title to say in an Elvis voice? “Homage To Catalonia” is pretty fun, but I find myself most drawn to saying “Beowulf, mama.”
18. Oprah Winfrey (III)
What’s better than a solo picnic in the park with a book? I’ll tell you: going on a solo picnic and spotting Oprah reading against a tree nearby, asking, “What’re you reading?” and Oprah’s reply is to give you the look in this fun, candid poster. Are you kidding me, it would make your year!
17. Rachel Ray
They did it folks, they found the smallest cube of blue cheese for Rachel Ray to pose with. And she looks like she’s having a blast holding it, barely holding back a laugh. This is a silly one, and I don’t hate it!
16. LeVar Burton
If there is a celebrity who has to be on a Read poster, it’s LeVar Burton. This poster is interesting and calming, exactly the kind of thing you want to see at a library. This is another poster that you can get on a shirt!
15. Miss Piggy and Kermit in Ancient Egypt
Miss Piggy alwasy has on an incredible outfit—Henson should be invited to bring Miss Piggy to the Met Gala every year. Also, this poster would make a great couple’s costume for Halloween.
14. Coolio
Having some fun with Frankenstein, you love to see it. I like to think this poster was done with practical effects and had the highest budget out of all of these.
13. Nicholas Cage
I love Nic Cage and this poster is giving a lot of Nic Cage: everything is a little off and a little intense. The tree limbs look fake, his pose is so odd and contrived, and combined with his choice of book (you just know Cage has dominated a cocktail party conversation explaining Siddhartha), this poster is giving “high schooler reading out behind the gym and trying to look interesting and mysterious.”
This poster is engaging, nearly ensorcelling.
12. Harrison Ford
The finger holding the place in the book is so natural and casual—Ford looks like a celebrity who not only knows how a book works, but also genuinely likes to read.
This is one that a kid who loves Indiana Jones is going to be drawn to for one reason, and their ‘90s parent who loves the shirt-changing scene in Working Girl is going to be drawn to for another reason.
11. Shaquille O’Neal
This one is insane. They apparently booked a studio that was too small for Shaq and had to cram him into a child’s chair.
But this one became a meme because of Shaq’s sly, almost conspiratorial look. Like Mona Lisa’s smile, there’s a generation of kids who have wondered what this look could mean. Is he communicating the subtle joy of reading? Is he bragging, somehow: “Don’t you wish you were reading too”? Is he getting a giddy thrill from reading Undying Glory? Or is he daring us, asking us if we’re cool enough to get a book out of the library?
Whatever it is, it’s working: Shaq knows that reading rocks.
10. Bette Midler
These posters really make clear who is just a celebrity and who is a true entertainer, capable of putting on a show with a bare minimum of resources. Midler is absolutely a top-tier entertainer—look at how delightful this poster is!
9. Morgan Freeman
Doing so much with so little! If you’re not going to pose in media reading, you don’t have to prop up the book like it’s an honorary diploma you’ve been awarded—look at this casual drape. It’s unfussy and cool, and still managing to show off the cover.
I love Freeman’s glasses askew, cool-teacher expression. It’s a slightly intimidating seriousness that’s somewhere between, “Do you need something?” and “Wow, you’re making a fascinating point about the Beats.”
A unique book pick too, a Kesey that I haven’t read but I’m excited to look into. This one’s doing everything you want a Read poster to do!
8. Miss Piggy and Kermit in The Library
Irresistibly charming. One of America’s great couples, spending the afternoon in the stacks. Lots of tension and narrative in this picture, but in particular I want to draw your attention to the fact that Miss Piggy is kicking a leg up in a delightful outfit, while Kermit is just relaxing, fully nude.
7. R.E.M.
Extremely cool! Here’s a cool band looking very much like a cool band, and—other than the one band member who has chosen to pose with “globe”—they’ve got some cool book picks, too! R.E.M. and the library, a classic pairing!
6. E.T.
Is this poster from a timeline where E.T. escaped the government, settled down on Earth, and became a content, middle-aged alien who spends long lazy days filled with books and milk? Or is this poster from a timeline where E.T.’s returned home, where he became everyone’s most annoying friend because he’s still way too obsessed with Earth stuff, like a college student whose entire identity is “studied abroad?”
Either way, E.T.’s feet are too prominent here.
5. Sting
Here’s the drama and camp that we’ve been craving!
Do you think they really art-directed the hell out of this one, and hired a costumer, and a location scout, and found just the right copy of Frankenstein for Sting to pose with? Or do you think this is “casual Sting,” that is, he just stepped outside of the castle he was living in, dressed like this on some random Tuesday?
I can’t decide what’s funnier, but I do really need a deep-dive, oral history on the making of this photo.
4. Paul Newman
Fantastic! The sunglasses, the book about ‘80s nuclear laser scientists, the slightly awkward lounging, the fact that Newman’s probably in character as pool hustler “Fast” Eddie Felson—it’s all working to create a twisted gestalt. This one seems destined for dorm room walls.
As much as I love this one, I have to dock it for missing the assignment a bit: Are kids at the library going to get excited about a poster pegged to Newman’s only Oscar-winning performance in 1986’s The Color of Money?
3. Big Bird
Aesthetically this is the top of the heap: the primary colors, the great typeface, Big Bird’s natural pose. Gorgeous.
But reading a book on sunflowers while standing in a field of sunflowers is a little like wearing the band shirt to the concert—act like you’ve been here before, Big Bird.
2. David Bowie
What’s there to say about this one that hasn’t already been said? It’s a classic. Whenever I’ve told people that I’m working on “something about those library Read posters,” this is the poster that they inevitably bring up.
Jumping and making that “oooh wow!” face while reading Dostoyevsky’s dense and philosophical The Idiot is just the perfect amount of wacky. It’s tough to top!
1. Billy Dee Williams
This is it: my top pick.
It’s not the flashiest of the bunch, but this one of Billy Dee Williams lounging in a robe on a sumptuous pillow is absolutely acing all quadrants: a compelling, charismatic photo; Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, an excellent selection; he’s holding it in a normal and enticing way, mid-page-turn; and most of all, this one really makes me want to drop everything, find the coziest chair in my house, and read.
Amazing poster. This man should have been a superstar.
