While we aren't advocates for pedestaling any kind of public figure, it's hard not to soften our stance when it comes to Louis Theroux. His perfectly awkward poise in the face of some of society's most jarring social groups has made him so relatable, so endlessly watchable – it's only fair that we take a page out of his book, or perhaps more aptly, a book out of his library.
Luckily, Theroux is all about transparency – and that includes his summer reading list. Posting the full stack to Instagram, he captioned it: "Summer reading course… I’ve already got through the Szalay, Sedaris and Lena Dunham – all highly recommended. I probably won’t finish the entire menu but looking forward to trying. Some of these are Podcast related so… there may be some clues about possible upcoming guests. Can you imagine iceberg slim in the studio? Alas, he died in 1992. Feel free to add book recommendations in the comments. I also recently enjoyed The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, Question 7 by Richard Flanagan and The Wren The Wren by Ann Enright."
All the books on Louis Theroux's summer reading list, below.
1. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem
Spanning decades of essays, reportage and speeches, Steinem – American writer, political activist, and leader of the women's rights movement – takes on everything from workplace sexism and reproductive rights to the surprisingly political business of food.
2. The Story of the Streets by Mike Skinner
Before The Streets became one of the defining voices of 2000s Britain, Skinner was making tracks in his bedroom – here, he traces how those experiments became Original Pirate Material and the strange experience of becoming famous in the process.
3. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
A teenage friendship forged over music, rebellion and one unforgettable 1980s weekend in Manchester becomes something far more devastating when, decades later, one friend calls the other with life-changing news.
4. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Family dysfunction is rarely this funny, with Sedaris mining his childhood, siblings, parents and adult relationships for stories in which cruelty, affection and complete absurdity make surprisingly comfortable bedfellows.
5. Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze
Krauze was studying English literature at university while simultaneously immersed in London’s gangs, robberies and drug trade, and his Booker Prize-longlisted autofiction lives in the uncomfortable space between those two worlds.
6. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
Two of America’s best-connected political reporters, Haberman and Swan go inside Trump’s second presidency to examine how power is being exercised differently this time around – and the people helping reshape the office around him.
7. Famesick by Lena Dunham
Having grown up adjacent to New York’s art world before becoming famous herself at 25 with Girls, Dunham turns her attention to our collective obsession with celebrity, reckoning of her own experience of ailing health.
8. Every Man for Himself and God against All by Werner Herzog
Herzog has been shot at, hypnotised an entire film cast and once ate his own shoe after losing a bet, so it tracks that his memoir is a strange journey through filmmaking, obsession and adventure.
9. Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim
First published in 1967, Slim’s unflinching account of his years as a pimp in mid-century Chicago became an underground bestseller and an enormously influential – if deeply disturbing – portrait of the violence and psychology of that world.
10. Flesh by David Szalay
A quiet Hungarian teenager’s affair with an older married woman sets off a chain of events that carries him through radically different worlds of money, sex, class and power in Szalay’s Booker-winning novel.
11. Operation Shylock by Philip Roth
Imagine travelling to Israel only to discover another man is there using your name and promoting an ideology you find appalling: Roth uses this wonderfully slippery premise to blur autobiography, espionage and outright invention.
Looking for more reading lists from your favourite creative minds? Sofia Coppola shared her vacation reading list and the 2026 Booker Prize Long List was just announced, full of new titles to add to your seasonal reads.
Feature image via Instagram.
