Howard Stern chooses his collection of favourite books
Howard Stern held a fascination with radio from a young age, influenced by his father’s work in radio and recording, which led him to study communications at university. During his education, he gained experience in various radio shows and landed his first official radio role in 1975 at WNTN in Massachusetts. Over the next decade, he worked at different radio stations before joining WNTN full-time in 1985. This marked the start of his extensive hosting career with The Howard Stern Show, which remains popular and has been broadcast on Sirius XM since 2006.
For an extended period, The Howard Stern Show reigned as the top morning radio program in New York. This can be attributed to Stern and his co-host, Robin Quivers, who frequently engaged in provocative behaviour, which ranged from overtly sexualising female guests to sharing controversial, dark humour. Self-proclaimed as the ‘King of All Media,’ Stern has certainly etched his name into history, though not always for the most favourable reasons.
Consequently, his provocative conduct frequently led to clashes with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), resulting in fines totalling $2.5million against the program. Stern is undeniably one of radio’s most polarising personalities, although his venture into the world of cinema proved to be far less triumphant. He took on a role in Private Parts, a film adaptation of his autobiography released in 1997, and this performance even earned him a nomination in the ‘Worst New Star’ category at The Golden Raspberry Awards.
However, if your curiosity has ever beckoned and you’ve found yourself pondering what books Stern holds in high regard, we’ve assembled a comprehensive compilation that spans from Bruce Springsteen’s classic Born to Run to Tom Sizemore’s By Some Miracle I Made It Out Of There. He’s also particularly fond of Katy Tur’s gruelling retelling of events when she was an NBC reporter during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Unbelievable is Tur’s firsthand perspective of her experience embedded with the campaign, shedding light on the challenges of reporting on the most confrontational and unpredictable candidate from a major party who ultimately ran for office and emerged victorious.
His fondness of memoirs and historical literature is clear, further including the World War II piece With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa written by United States Marine Eugene Sledge and first published in 1981. The memoir is based on notes Sledge kept tucked away in a pocket-sized Bible he carried with him during battles he fought at Peleliu and Okinawa.
Others include Al Franken’s Giant of the Senate, John Sarno’s The Divided Mind, Danny Zucker’s He Started It!, and David Allen’s Getting Things Done. His recommended book collection matches perfectly with his list of all-time favourite movies, which, aside from the odd comedy, mostly features some of the industry’s biggest action movies.
His cinematic preferences encompass Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, in addition to big-budget hits like Die Hard and Mission: Impossible. Within the realm of comedy, you’ll find The Hangover, Knocked Up, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. His selections also extend to notable films such as David Fincher’s Se7en, Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, and the Coen brothers’ Fargo. Nonetheless, when it comes to his favoured pieces of literature, it’s evident that he is strongly inclined towards American history and its most contentious political chapters.
Check out the complete list below.
Howard Stern’s favourite books:
- David Allen – Getting Things Done
- E. B. Sledge – With the Old Breed
- Howard Zinn – A People’s History of the United States
- Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
- Danny Zucker – He Started It!
- Katy Tur – Unbelievable
- Tom Sizemore – By Some Miracle I Made It Out Of There
- Al Franken – Giant of the Senate
- Audrey M. Lewis & Patricia Junker – Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect
- John Sarno – The Divided Mind
