A collection of Emily Blunt’s favourite books of all time: “A good book can change your life”
Emily Blunt is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in the film industry. Over the course of an acclaimed career, Blunt has collaborated with celebrated filmmakers such as Denis Villeneuve and Mike Nichols, among many others.
In recent years, Blunt has received the most attention for participating in the horror film series A Quiet Place. Directed by her husband and former The Office star – John Krasinski, it imagines a post-apocalyptic scenario where an extraterrestrial species of blind entities has decimated the entirety of human civilisation.
After receiving praise for the 2021 sequel – A Quiet Place II, Blunt was ready to tackle a new challenge. She was given that challenge when faced with performing in Oppenheimer, one of her most serious and devastating roles to date. That movie, alongside some more frivolous affairs, has made her one of the most sought-after actors in the business right now.
Previously, Blunt has cited directors like Steven Spielberg and Miloš Forman as chief sources of inspiration. However, in an interview with Oprah, the actor was asked to name some of her favourite books. She explained how they had impacted her personal life as well as the trajectory of her career.
“I think a good book can change your life,” Blunt declared. While citing her personal favourites, she revealed: “I think To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that did that. Honestly, when I read The Kite Runner, I couldn’t sleep for two weeks. It clicked my brain into a different way of thinking and regarding people.”
She added: “That tragic story about how the father was the king of the world in Afghanistan, and then he’s filling cars with petrol and no one knows who he is and people are speaking to him in a derogatory way. I found it very upsetting. It upsets me still when I think about it—how you don’t really know where people are from and what their story is. How everyone must be given the benefit of the doubt.”
A global phenomenon and a New York Times bestseller, The Kite Runner transformed author Khaled Hosseini into a household name. Hosseini’s ability to weave highly personal stories of friendship and trauma within larger contexts of sociopolitical tragedies contributed to the book’s immense success. Blunt concluded: “That was one of those books that clicked my brain into a different direction.”
In another interview, Blunt shared her appreciation for Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. Explaining during the promotion of The Girl on the Train, perhaps Blunt’s most famous book adaptation, “I think it’s a wonderfully existential, ethereal book. I think it is so complicated emotionally, it has that ‘sliding doors’ feeling of ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ of life.” She continued, “It is something I think about all the time.”
During the same interview, she once again picked out To Kill A Mockingbird, this time sharing that she had fallen “completely in love” with the book’s protagonist, Atticus Finch, labelling the book’s ability to talk about societal issues as “genius”. Another novel mentioned is John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which Blunt calls a “monster,” and celebrated that she managed to complete reading it.
Emily Blunt’s favourite books:
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
- The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
- Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
- East of Eden – John Steinbeck
