Meghan Markle's Favorite Books: See Her Reading List!

Back when Meghan Markle was just a network TV star moonlighting as a lifestyle blogger — rather than a soon-to-be member of the British royal family — the Suits actress shared everything from her favorite wines to her preferred Spotify playlists with readers of her website, The Tig.

Before her high-profile romance with Prince Harry caused the royal family to expunge her digital footprint from the Internet (farewell Tig, bye-bye motivational quotes on Meghan’s Instagram), one of Meghan’s Tig features revealed five of her favorite books. And so, in the run up to the royal wedding, what better way to put an expensive and perhaps futile literature degree to use than by analyzing (ie. making wild generalizations about) the future Duchess’ favorite motivational reads? Scroll down to see Meghan’s favorite books!

The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

“I have long been obsessed with this book, and specifically with The Little Fox,” Meghan told her Tig readers. “Even if I don’t revisit the entire existential text (masked as a children’s book), the chapter of The Little Fox unearths a truth in me that is always worth the check-in.”

Having never read The Little Prince, I’ve resorted to a time-honored means of literary analysis, Spark Notes, and still can’t quite unpick what the Fox is all about. He does, however, tell the Prince that you can only truly see with your heart, not your eyes, which is a rather lovely sentiment. Let’s just assume that her choice of a book about a Prince foreshadowed the fact that she’d one day… marry a Prince?

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Based on ancient Toltec wisdom and promising to contain a code of conduct that should theoretically lead to freedom, happiness, and love, Meghan was given a copy of The Four Agreements by her mother Doria when she was 13 years old. Per her Tig piece, she “constantly circle[s] back to the Don Miguel Ruiz classic for the simplest ways to simplify your life,” and from her clever use of repetition, we can glean that Meghan loves simplicity; she was probably into Marie Kondo before it was a thing, you guys!

The Agreements themselves actually sound like they have the potential to be pretty useful in Meghan’s future life. First, there’s “be impeccable with your word,” fair advice given that everything the new royal says on the record has the power to generate its own news story. Then there’s “don’t take anything personally” and “don’t make assumptions” — don’t take Prince George‘s side-eye personally, and don’t assume you have to dress in homage to Princess Diana — and “always do your best.”

The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard

“Annoyed by your self-doubt and distractions? The noise that keeps you from reaching your potential? Okay, so yeah. Me too,” Meghan wrote of The Motivation Manifesto, the second self-help book on her list and one which boasts the content-worthy subtitle 9 Declarations to Claim Your Personal Power.

Author Burchard is a motivational speaker whose tag line is “Live, Love, Matter” (which we can imagine written in cursive on a Tig-friendly throw pillow) and has a profile on Success.com, so we can only infer that he’s a very successful guy. What else can we learn from this choice, other than the fact that our Meghan is a goal-oriented individual?

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

“Aspects of Taoism told through the characters of Winnie the Pooh — I mean, does it get better?” Meghan once wrote of The Tao of Pooh — an introduction to Taoist beliefs featuring the inhabitants of the 100 Acre Wood — far quicker and more succinctly than we ever could.

Assumption made: Meghan is totally the friend who brings you a fridge magnet bearing (no pun intended) a deep slogan under a picture of Pooh walking into the distance, telling you “I just thought of you when I saw it!”

Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson

Meghan’s third and final self-help tome purports to contain the “World’s Most Popular Management Method.” According to her lost Tig feature, she first picked the book up as part of the required reading for an Industrial Engineering class at Northwestern University.

Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable in which (spoiler alert!) the cheese represents everything you want to have in life. Has Meghan found the cheese? Yes — someone gave her a wedding cake sculpted from cheese back in January!