Taylor Swift appears on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Dec.10, 2025.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Taylor Swift during Wednesday’s December 10, 2025 show. Photo: Scott Kowalchyk ©2025 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Celebrities, they’re just like us.

Taylor Swift revealed she’s an avid audiobook listener, a lover of domestic mysteries with families hiding twisty secrets while on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".

The “Fate of Ophelia” songstress said she’s listening “constantly” in her personal time, and is a fan of books with a similar vibe to “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier, a 1938 Gothic novel that inspired her song “Tolerate It.”

Swift isn’t alone – this year was big for audiobooks, with Spotify Wrapped data showing half of all Spotify Premium users tried an audiobook this year. Audiobook sales increased 13% to $2.2 million total sales last year, according to a recent Audio Publishers Association Sales survey.

Taylor Swift loves a very specific kind of audiobook

Though Swift didn’t name a specific book other than “Rebecca,” she did share that her favorites are dark, atmospheric mysteries. And she’s got specific plot requirements:

“If you’ve got an old, rambling, shambles old British mansion covered in moss or ivy and there’s a mysterious relationship and he may not be what he seems and there’s a murder that has happened in the past but you hear whispers of it, there’s the idea of a ghost or an actual ghost,” Swift said. “If you present me with a plotline where there’s a family compound on an island off the coast of Maine, there are secrets in this family, right? This brother, what’s going on with him? Why don’t we know where he’s been for 10 years, why did he just show up? Do you know what I mean? If there’s a marriage and the marriage isn’t what it seems and it seems like this dude is clearly, like why are you with him? He’s horrible to you. Plot twist – unreliable narrator, she’s the psycho.”

Colbert agreed: “That sounds like a great book.”

“If you’ve got any of that, I’m going to need to read that,” Swift said. “And when I say read that, I mean I’m going to need someone to read that to me.”

Taylor, if you’re reading this, we’ve got some books you should check out, if you haven’t read them already:

  • “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
  • “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden
  • “Beautiful Ugly” by Alice Feeney
  • “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy
  • “Big Little Lies” by Liane Moriarty
  • “None of This is True” by Lisa Jewell
  • “The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley
  • “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides

Is Taylor Swift writing a book? Fans speculate

Swift could read off her grocery list and leave fans hunting for easter eggs. Naturally, her specific description has Swifties sending out the bat signal.

Fans are pointing out references to Swift’s “Evermore” and “Folklore” – “ivy” on crumbling British mansions like her track, murder plots like in “No Body No Crime.” Some are even drawing parallels between her red dress and lipstick to “Red,” the album that features the “All Too Well” music video with Swift appearing as an author.

“Wait is Taylor telling us she’s writing a book??!” one video speculates.

Regardless of Swift’s future literary plans, the singer sure had a vision for Colbert’s next journey after “The Late Show” ends – writing a thriller set in a house covered in ivy.

“Maybe off the coast of Maine?” Colbert quipped, uncapping a pen and taking notes.

“There’s a mistress there, but actually she’s related to them," Swift said. "It’s really bad, but it’s an amazing book. But it’s grim. And then somebody falls off a cliff – oh no, it was a ghost. And then it turns out they don’t actually own the island.”

Mysterious drownings, secret relatives, ivy-covered houses, will Colbert or Swift snatch up the IP first? Take your bets now.

Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Taylor Swift writing a book? Fans speculate after singer talks audiobooks on Colbert

Reporting by Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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