Celebrities Who Wanted to be Librarians

A couple weeks ago, I posted about LeBron James's support of literacy, and in November, I posted about Taylor Swift's support of literacy. Someone commented on my post about LeBron James and said that B.J. Novak of The Office also has connections to libraries, which leads me to today's post.

I was reading the link given in the comments of the LeBron James post and was delighted to learn that Novak wrote the children's book The Book With No Pictures. I haven't read the book yet, but I've had several colleagues recommend it to me. I had no idea it was written by a celebrity, because I don't watch The Office, and while I don't always like it when celebrities write books, for some reason, I'm thrilled that this one was written by a celebrity--maybe because I don't know anything about Novak.

What's even better about Novak is that once upon a time, he wanted to be a librarian. In the article "B.J. Novak Goes the Extra Mile for Libraries" (this is the link that was given in the comments of the LeBron James post), Novak was quoted as saying, "I was enthralled by the library in my elementary school, where anything could happen and where no one told you where your mind was supposed to be."

This is a completely different way of showing support for libraries. Novak hasn't donated money to libraries or other literacy efforts, but writing for kids and doing readings from his children's book at libraries is a great way to bring awareness to public libraries.

Since there's not much more to say about Novak and libraries than that, I thought I'd dig around to see if I could find other celebrities who support authors. I was delighted to find this list, from Public Library News. I was even more delighted to see Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones on the list. According to an article published by The Economist, Richards, like Novak, once aspired to become a librarian.

Am I the only one who is surprised (in a good way) about celebrities who wanted to be librarians at one point in their lives? Do you know of any other celebrities who have said they wanted to be librarians when they were younger? Let me know in the comments!