books spotted in movies

one of my favorites is Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins as seen in the film 50 First Dates.

In "The Machinist" Trevor is reading The Idiot, Dostoyevsky.

Mrs. Tony Soprano (is it Carmela?) reading Memoirs of a Geisha in bed.

Rented the DVD of After Hours the other night. One of the opening scenes has the protagonist in a coffee shop reading Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer.

In the famous Twilight Zone episode, Henry Beamis is reading David Copperfield.

In G.I. Jane, the instructor, Master Chief Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen), has a huge pile of books on his table and is reading "Master and Commander" by Patrick O'Brian (yay!).
He also recites the poem "Self Pity" by DH Lawrence, and gives the book with the poem to "G.I. Jane" at the end (title?)

In From Russia With Love, James Bond is sitting on the train reading Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios which interestingly enough is a spy thriller.

After watching Bull Durham for about the 20th time, I noticed towards the end that one of the coaches in the dugout during a rain storm is reading Mayan Wisdom Made Easy. No touchstone, so I'm not sure that this is even a legit book, but thought it looked interesting if it is.

Updated to add, the book is apparently phony. Who knew there is a Bull Durham trivia site to tell you these things? It still sounds as though somebody should write it.

In You've Got Mail Tom Hanks' character is trying to read Pride and Prejudice at the urging of Meg Ryan's character and not having a successful go of it. Lots of eye rolling.

I was watching a rerun of Clueless the other night. Several interesting books made an appearance. Cher's ex-stepbrother was reading something by Nietzsche, though I couldn't catch the title. Her gay guy pal was reading Junky by William S. Burroughs while in class.

In The Road, Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Therons characters have a copy of Lonely Planet New Zealand on top of their piano. I reckon it is because Mortensen was in NZ to shoot Lord of the Rings and now LOVES the place (who wouldn't?).

Darn, wrong thread. Moving this one to the fake book thread. Amazing how many fake books there are in the movies. Somebody should actually write them.

In the movie version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as Harry comes into the Leaky Cauldron a wizard his stirring his tea and reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.

In Dirty Dancing, the baddie has a copy of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Fitting.

Spotted in the hands of Katie Archer's bored receptionist in The Birdcage, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist.

Just saw a terrific vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive. As Tilda Swinton is about to fly, by night of course, from Tangiers to her depressed husband in Detroit, she's packing up a load of books and speed reading at the same time. Not all of them were in English, but two I could pick out were Infinite Jest and Don Quixote.

In Withnail & I, Marwood (Paul McGann) reads Journey's end by R. C. Sherrif and packs up two Penguins in his suitcase, one of which is Huysmans' À rebours (Against nature).

In Birdman, Edward Norton's character can be seen reading Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. I found that a nice nod to the magic-realist nature of the film.

Not visibly present, but mentioned in passing by Woody Allen's character -- A Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert in the movie Manhattan.

Sylvia Plath's Ariel in Annie Hall. Woody Allen's character tosses it aside when he visits Annie's apartment for a drink.

A lot of books in Captain Fantastic, the story of children intensively trained in a programme designed by their parents to produce strong and brilliant future citizens. Particularly noticeable: The Brothers Karamazov, Middlemarch, Lolita and Guns, Germs and Steel. The Joy of Sex also makes a significant appearance.

In the movie version of Sex and the City, Samantha is sitting on a beach reading a copy of The Secret.

In the closing scenes of Suicide Squad Harley Quinn is sitting in her jail cell reading Between the Sheets by Molly O’Keefe.

In The Waterboy Henry Winkler is reading The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Coaching College Football._a fake book.

In When Harry Met Sally Harry is laying in bed reading The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum.

Grace Kelly’s character in Hitchcock’s Rear Window was reading Beyond the High Himalayas.

In Pialat's Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble Catherine can be seen reading two books:

Slan (interesting as she is not otherwise presented as a particularly nerdy character)

Les Fleurs du Mal

Also mentioned but not read on screen : Henri Troyat, Blaise Pascal, Cesare Pavese.

In Curtis Hanson's LA Confidendential Lynn Bracken has a well-used copy of How to cook a wolf on her bedstand

In Pulp Fiction John Travolta’s character Vincent was reading Modesty Blaise in the toilet right before he gets shot by Bruce Willis’ character Butch.

In Jackie Brown the bail bondsman Max Cherry is reading Len Deighton’s Berlin Game.

Sometimes books are central to a plot of a film or TV show. The Hallmark Movies and Mysteries TV film called Holly and Ivy features an early copy of the first Trixie Belden book, The Secret of the Mansion. The Trixie fans were happy about that and mention it every time it is rediscovered when it rebroadcast.

James

--- just stopping by to say that I love this thread ---

An LT user, Jolerie, used to catalogue the books that featured in the books she read...which I used to find interesting too :)

>32 LovingLit: And, of course, there is a group devoted to that device (sadly, dormant):

https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/296/Books-in-Books

In the film Corsage, Elisabeth, empress of Austria, is seen reading The Light Princess by George MacDonald.

Oppenheimer shows a young J. Robert Oppenheimer reading The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. He also reads The Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit and claims to have read Das Kapital in the original German.

In the opening of A Fish Called Wanda, Kevin Kline’s character is reading Nietsche’s Beyond Good and Evil.

In Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl, Gromit is in bed reading A Room of One’s Own. Over breakfast he’s reading Paradise Lost.

The title character in The Survivalist has a small, mostly practical library that includes several volumes of the Observer's Books series.

In Sorry, Baby, a university literature class discusses Lolita and another character is seen reading Giovanni's Room.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming the character known as Michelle is seen reading Of Human Bondage.

At the Brooklyn Coffee Shop on social media, classic nihilist menu

Barista, Thyme, is reading The Complacent Class

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTS2euEcQ/