My Favorite Male Fictional Characters Who Love Reading

When drawing up the list of my favorite male fictional characters who love reading I realized it’s a slightly bigger struggle to come up with than their female counterparts.

Stereotypically this is unsurprising and perhaps my brain just isn’t firing on all cylinders, but it was really tough to find a fictional guy who loved to pick up a book. I was looking for characters who seemed to have a true love of books. Meaning I was trying to avoid characters like professors or historians who would be required to be book-interested as part of their job. I was looking for passion!

I guess reading is just more of a fictional lady’s game. Or at least having reading as a fictional hobby.

In any event, here are a few of my favorite gentleman who liked to stick their schnozolas in a book and stay for a while. I salute them.

Jess from Gilmore Girls

Jess and Rory may not have been the most functional of couples, but one thing that did work for them was their shared love of reading. Jess was never far from a book and this let me excuse most of his jerkish behavior. How bad can a person be if he loves books that much? Sure, he totally dumped Rory by leaving town without even telling her, but whatever. He was super upset about it. He couldn’t even read the book he brought with him on the bus! Jess was just too full of repressed emotions for his own good. But never too full of books. You can never be too full of books.

Tom Haverford from Parks & Rec

I’m no fan of Twilight, but I am a huge fan of Tom being a fan of Twilight. To be fair, I’ve never read the book, but I did see the first movie and that was enough to make me want to pull my eyeballs out of my face for fear of seeing anything else Twilight-related ever again. But I can appreciate the fact that if it made Tom think that reading was cool, there must have something to it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to enjoy some chicky-chicky parm-parm and a super water.

Don Draper on Mad Men

In the Mad Men universe, Don’s no dope. He likes to lose himself in a good book and really stir the pot of the existential crisis soup that is his life. I like when he reads on the beach in festive trunks with a cocktail by his thighs. I mean side.

Bonus points go to Jon Hamm for also appearing on Gilmore Girls, one of the best book-minded shows ever.

Sawyer on Lost

Remember Lost? I sure do! I stuck with it til the bitter end. I still want to know what happened to all the kidnapped children and pregnant ladies or whatever. But that’s not gonna happen. But what did happen is Sawyer reading tons of dead people’s plane books! He’d read anything. And I love him for that. And for wearing reading glasses. Where did he even get some that matched his prescription?!? Oh, Lost, how you vex me!

Joey on FRIENDS

Remember that time Joey learned to read? Just kidding – of course he can read! But remember the time he got really into Little Women? The book, you pervs! Not a little people orgy. Jeez. You guys can be so weird. I adored when Joey read Little Women. He really connected with those little ladies and this episode of FRIENDS taught me never to spoil a plot for anyone. For any reason. At any time.

Honorable mention goes to Klaus from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

While I haven’t read the books I did see and was delighted by the film. And just look at Klaus with his giant book. That’s love.

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