Bruce Springsteen has revealed his 20 favourite books of all time, discussing his lifelong love of literature in an interview with The New York Times. The piece traces how various works shaped both his songwriting and his broader outlook on life, showing that his music draws on a far wider range of literary influence than is often recognised.

Springsteen credited works such as Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Flannery O'Connor's short stories and Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass with directly inspiring songs including "Nebraska", "Glory Days" and "Thunder Road". He also named Richard Ford's The Lay of the Land as the book that makes him laugh and McCarthy's The Road as the one that makes him cry, while citing O'Connor's short stories as the writing that "made him". The list further reflects his admiration for Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov, alongside his stated dream dinner guests Philip Roth, Keith Richards, Tolstoy and Bob Dylan.