The Essential Taylor Swift Reading List
You’ve consumed every song, album, music video, social media post and concert that Taylor Swift has ever done. You own the merch. You’ve given her all your money. 55% of your brain power is dedicated to Easter eggs.
If you’re like me, there is never enough Taylor Swift art in your life. So what else is there to do?
You could read the literature that Taylor has read, and especially the writings she references again and again.
I’m an English teacher who studies the Taylor Swift universe, and I’ve compiled this essential Taylor Swift reading list just for you, or for your Swiftie gifting needs.
Want to fall further down the rabbit hole? It just gets curiouser and curiouser. Let’s go.
The Essential Taylor Swift Reading List
Here are the books, plays, and poems that Taylor references frequently, or are important thematically in the Taylor Swift metaverse.
For the complete list of every work of literature Taylor has ever referenced, see my full guide here.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Taylor has referenced the Lewis Carroll classic several times, both in her imagery and in her lyrics. She’s undoubtedly been inspired by Alice’s heroine’s journey, which is much like her own.
Inspired: Wonderland, long story short, Guilty As Sin?
Aristotle
The philosopher and polymath is a favorite inspiration of Taylor’s.
Though the translations of his works are a difficult read (I was forced to read them by a cruel philosophy professor!), his ideas on morality thread through many of Taylor’s lyrics.
Inspired: cardigan, So High School
Carrie, Stephen King
King’s iconic horror novel follows a teen with latent supernatural powers. When her classmates try to humiliate her, a bloodbath ensues.
You can draw your own parallels, but reading a Stephen King book is never, ever a bad idea.
Inspired: You’re On Your Own Kid, Call it What You Want
🎁 Need a Gift for a Swiftie? See my complete gifting guide HERE! 🎁
Fairytales
Since the very beginning of her songwriting career, Taylor has been inspired by fairytales, including Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and more.
Along the way, she learned that the fairytale ending she was promised would never come, but she loves using them as metaphors all the same.
Inspired: Today Was a Fairytale, Love Story, right where you left me, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, The Prophecy & many more
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The iconic novel about the search for the American Dream is referenced in several of Taylor’s songs, and was likely the inspiration for the imagery of the Blank Space music video.
Inspired: Blank Space, This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, the 1, happiness
Greek Mythology
Taylor loves to use Greek mythology as metaphors and allegories, including the tales of King Midas, Sisyphus, and Cassandra.
Inspired: Holy Ground, champagne problems, Cassandra, So Long London
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
Taylor’s High Infidelity is a play on the title of this essential read for music lovers. It’s also a cult classic John Cusack film, as well as a more recent TV series starring Taylor’s pal Zoe Kravitz.
Inspired: High Infidelity
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Brontë’s classic novel follows the protagonist’s search for identity in a world where women have little agency. The book also popularized the archetype of the “madwoman in the attic,” and has one of the most famous lines in English literature: “Dear reader, I married him.”
Inspired: mad woman, closure, evermore, Dear Reader
Just Kids, Patti Smith
The iconic singer, songwriter and author is name-checked in The Tortured Poets Department, and her memoir Just Kids is also name-checked in loml. This incredible memoir is an essential for any music lover, writer or artist.
Inspired: The Tortured Poets Department, loml
The Lake Poets
Poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, John Keats, and Percy Shelley really did go to the Lake District of England to die, or rather, to be inspired by nature and solitude.
Inspired: the lakes, The Albatross
Peter Pan, JM Barrie
Yes, the Disney classic was a book first and foremost! Taylor often references the story of Peter Pan and Wendy Darling to portray yearning and destiny.
Inspired: cardigan, I Look in People’s Windows, Peter
Poetry
Taylor is a poet, and a fervent reader of poetry. Here are some of the most significant poems she references in her songbook:
- Tonight I Can Write, Pablo Neruda: Original Red Prologue
- The Wasteland, TS Eliot: Cruel Summer, Midnight Rain
- The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost: The Outside, Illicit Affairs, ‘tis the damn season
- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas: my tears ricochet, The Tortured Poets Department
- Compassion, Miller Williams: ivy
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Albatross
The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
One of the “bright young things,” English author Nancy Mitford wrote a trilogy focusing on an upper-class family’s adventures in life and love in interwar England. The protagonist’s mother is nicknamed “The Bolter” for her habit of serial monogamy.
The first book in the series was recently made into a fantastic BBC miniseries.
Inspired: The Bolter
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
“Her husband just tolerates her,” Taylor said in an evermore-era interview. She’d just read Rebecca, the classic psychological thriller & ghost story, about a wife haunted by the spectre of her husband’s first wife.
Inspired: tolerate it
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
In the classic novel, the protagonist is marked with a scarlet ‘A’ to label her as a “fallen woman,” never to be accepted by her puritan village. In modern times, we’d call this slut-shaming.
Inspired: Love Story, New Romantics, Maroon
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
In the classic children’s novel, the protagonist is orphaned, eventually finding escape, solace and purpose in a walled English garden.
Inspired: Cruel Summer, seven, I Hate it Here
Shakespeare: Essential Plays
The writer who forever changed the way we tell our modern stories has inspired Taylor throughout her career. If you’re not up for reading olde English, check out any of the film adaptations!
- Romeo & Juliet: Love Story
- All’s Well That Ends Well: All Too Well [10-minute Version], Lover
- The Taming of the Shrew: …Ready For it?
- Hamlet: willow, So Long, London
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The simple phrase “so it goes” has important literary roots. In Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, those three simple words reflect the protagonists’ fatalistic views in a traumatic world.
Inspired: Style, So it Goes…
Sylvia Plath
Taylor is definitely our generation’s Sylvia Plath – one of the most iconic tortured poets of all time. Swift frequently parallels the sentiments of Plath, who often wrote about the perils of being a woman in a patriarchal world.
If you’ve never read Sylvia Plath, start with The Bell Jar, The Collected Poems or dip your toes in by reading the short poem Lady Lazarus.
Inspired: mirrorball, How Did it End?, I Can Do it With a Broken Heart, The Prophecy
Virginia Woolf
English writer Virginia Woolf really pioneered stream-of-consciousness storytelling, a style that Taylor frequently uses. She wrote about the patriarchy, equated being labeled a “witch” with being a genius, and insisted on female independence in her classic essay A Room of One’s Own.
Inspired: The Man, mad woman, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee
This classic play is an interesting read, but the most iconic version is the 1966 Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton film.
The protagonists’ constant use of the phrase “who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf” means, according to the author, “who’s afraid to live without false illusions.”
Inspired: Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
The Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum
The classic film was originally a book that’s a must read for any Swiftie. Taylor refers to Dorothy’s heroine’s journey several times in her songbook, and likely sees herself as a version of the iconic protagonist: walking a yellow brick road, battling flying monkeys, and discovering that the “great and powerful Oz” is just a ruse.
🎁 Need a Gift for a Swiftie? See my complete gifting guide HERE! 🎁
Read More: Taylor Swift 101
- Why is Taylor Swift So Popular?
- Taylor Swift’s Songwriting Style & What Makes it Effective
- Taylor Swift’s Use of Literary Devices, Explained
- Taylor Swift Eras, Explained
- The Ultimate Guide to Taylor Swift’s Literary References
Read More: Themes & Easter Eggs
The Plotline of Taylor Swift: Her Ultimate Heroine’s Journey
What Will Happen After The Eras Tour? Ranking the Possibilities
