RuPaul's Reading List

"It’s life-changing and it helps you understand who you are and what you’re doing on this planet, and it also allows you to forgive other people, usually because other people are working out of their egos and fears. It gives you an opportunity to forgive."

"It’s the juiciest celebrity autobiography I’ve ever read. She holds nothing back!"

"David Ritz did a book with Aretha Franklin 20 years ago, and then two years ago he decided he’d take all of those notes and write the real book. It’s called Respect . It’s so good and so juicy. When you read it, obviously it was written before she died, but you realize it’s true, it’s not made-up stuff…. One of my favorites in recent years."

"It’s so candid, so real, and she really lets you have it."

"I love James St. James’ Disco Bloodbath , [the book] Party Monster is based on. I’ve known him for about 300 years. He writes the same way he speaks. I know how his mind works, so it’s fun to peek in and hang with him and his sensibilities. His other one, [ Freak Show ], Trudie Styler made a movie of that book with Bette Midler! It’s about a teenage drag queen in high school."

"I’m always interested in the untold stories of Hollywood. Usually you get to hear them from real estate agents, hairdressers, makeup people…. but you never really see them on screen or on television because Hollywood does not like movies or television shows about itself. But Jacqueline did."

"That book and the character were on the verge of some great things happening, but he never quite got to the other side [because] all of that stuff was happening before the AIDS crisis. The book takes place before all of those things in the late ‘70s."

"Lestat would be a great drag queen, a vampire drag queen! Especially since he’d become a rock star at one point. He’s fantastic!"

"I always look forward to his books. I’m reading Calypso and his diaries at the same time. I really enjoy those. He’s so smart and so clever, and the rhythm of his writing fits into my heart and into my own rhythm. He tickles me."