What Jacob Elordi reads: 9 of the actor’s favourite books, from Steinbeck to Sartre

Spotted in his hand at Sydney Airport, Miller’s one-woman play is a raw confrontation with gender bias and the inadequacies of the legal system. First staged in Sydney in 2019, it quickly moved to the West End and Broadway, where Jodie Comer’s performance earned awards. Its urgent themes of power and justice make it a resonant choice for Jacob Elordi, signalling his interest in socially charged texts that demand uncomfortable reflection.

Jacob Elordi has described Sartre’s 1938 novel as “incredibly relatable” for its depiction of a man overwhelmed by the absurdity of existence. The story follows Antoine Roquentin, whose diary entries spiral into alienation and anxiety. It became a cornerstone of existentialism, influencing literature, philosophy and postwar culture. For Elordi, often cast as men who exude charm but harbour unease, Sartre’s examination of freedom and dread may offer intellectual companionship.

The tale of Odysseus’s perilous ten-year journey home from Troy remains one of the great adventure stories, populated by sirens, cyclopes and vengeful gods. Beyond its mythic grandeur, it is a meditation on loyalty, resilience and the cost of longing for home. It provides a study in archetypes that continue to shape storytelling today.

Kerouac’s 1957 Beat Generation classic follows Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty across postwar America in a haze of jazz, sex and speed. Its spontaneous prose and restless search for meaning captured a cultural moment of rebellion and possibility. Jacob Elordi has called himself an enormous fan, which resonates with his own itinerant lifestyle as a working actor. The novel’s energy, built on improvisation and urgency, speaks to a generation living between airports and fleeting stops.

This 1952 epic, set in California’s Salinas Valley, reimagines the biblical story of Cain and Abel through generations of the Trask and Hamilton families. Steinbeck interrogates inherited guilt, moral choice and the possibility of redemption. Elordi has been linked to the novel via social shares, and its rich psychological terrain aligns with the layered characters he often embodies. The book’s study of duality provides endless material for interpretation.

Published in 2021, Ethan Hawke’s novel follows a young film star making his Broadway debut in Shakespeare’s Henry IV while battling divorce and public scrutiny. It is a candid exploration of ego, art and vulnerability, written by someone who has lived it. For Elordi, whose own career has risen quickly, Hawke’s honest portrait of an actor’s interior life can be both relatable and instructive—a reminder that artistry is inseparable from personal chaos.

Donna Tartt’s 1992 debut, a dark campus novel, blends intellectualism with crime as a group of classics students become complicit in murder. Its allure lies in its combination of erudition and moral decay, wrapped in precise prose. Jacob Elordi has expressed interest in the book and in seeing it adapted for screen, suggesting he is drawn not only to its narrative but to its cinematic qualities. Its cult following makes it one of the most influential novels of the past 30 years.

First published in 1818, Shelley’s novel remains one of literature’s great meditations on ambition and alienation. Victor Frankenstein’s creation, abandoned and reviled, reflects on humanity’s responsibility for what it makes. The book has influenced everything from science fiction to bioethics. With Elordi starring in Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation, revisiting the original text grounds his performance in Shelley’s urgent questions about creation, monstrosity and empathy.

Mix classics with contemporary plays and slim film texts. Carry paperbacks, read on flights and in queues, then let those ideas bleed into how you watch performances. If you want to read like Jacob Elordi, start by slipping one of these titles into your weekend bag—because the best way to steal time for books is the same as he does, between airports, hotels and the everyday waits we all know too well.

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