Actress Gwyneth Paltrow recommends reading as an inexpensive pastime during the short, dull days of winter.  As inspiration, Paltrow asked several of her “best and most literary-minded girlfriends to share their top picks” which she’s posted on her web site Goop.com.

Paltrow says, ” I always like knowing the literary preferences of people. I think it gives a better understanding of their inner life.”

Friends who’ve shared their top book picks include Madonna, who Paltrow states, “rules the world, is a loyal friend and a terrific mother” and super model Christy Turlington, “an amazing friend, mother, and an activist who is pursuing her masters in Public Health at Columbia University”.

Gwyneth’s picks:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

Madonna’s Choices:

• The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Christy Turlington’s Selections:

• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Don’t forget that Madonna has several books of her own published. Gwyneth Paltrow co-authored Spain…A Culinary Road Trip the companion book to the prime-time public television series Spain…On The Road Again while Christy Turlington published Living Yoga: Creating a Life Practice in 2002.

(In the pictures Paltrow is seen carrying children’s book Thank You Bear by Greg Foley and Maddonna is holding Armistead Maupin’s The Night Listener.)