Old Hollywood stars loved books and you should too

It always amazes me how well people used to read. I’ve always thought that the average movie star from the past would recommend a better shelf of books than the average literary critic today.

So this weekend, I’ve delegated out my reviews to four stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood: Audrey Hepburn, Errol Flynn, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Burton and Sean Connery.

“For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.” - Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was an icon of class and style, perhaps best known for her iconic portrayal of Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. She was also an avid reader.

Among her favorites was The Jungle Book by Kipling, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and Francis Hodgson Burnett’s classic The Secret Garden.

She particularly loved The Secret Garden, written in 1911, is a story about an angry adolescent girl who discovers a secret, walled-off garden that has lain dormant since her aunt's death. Through her exploration of the garden, she blossoms into a renewed and transformed person, and helps others do so as well. It’s a great choice.

“AFTER the trial I found myself relatively ostracized locally. I was thrown on my own resources again. I slid back to where I was years before at Laloki. I pulled out the books. I closed the doors at night. I brightened the reading lamp and I plunged into history again. I reread Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I decided the Roman Empire had stood for a long while. Maybe I would too, after all this died down.” - Errol Flynn, My Wicked Wicked Ways

Errol Flynn was an intelligent, charismatic, and very troubled man. So it’s not surprising that behind his action-figure image lurked a more intellectual side. Flynn was a great reader, and preferred books on history, the sea, and travel.

Among his favorites were Gibbon’s massive "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and “The History of the Conquest of Mexico” the 1843 masterwork by William H. Prescott, the blind historian who, with the help of his photographic memory, became one of 19th century’s preminent public intellectuals.

This is no light fare - both Gibbon’s and Prescott’s tomes are weighty volumes. Flynn may have acted the fool, but underneath all the swagger he was no lightweight.

The public remembers Marilyn Monroe as the ultimate Hollywood bombshell, but friends knew she was a serious reader with a surprisingly deep library.