The Real Bookshelves of Pawnee

A not-quite-comprehensive list of the actual books on the shelves of your favorite Parks and Recreation characters

I’m not sure how I got here. But when you’ve seen every episode of Parks and Recreation more times than you can count, you start to pay attention to the little details. So I guess it was inevitable that a book lover such as myself would start pausing the show and looking closely at the books.

Some were easy to figure out. Some took purposeful head bobbing to get a better focus. Some required a screen shot and editing of the lighting. Some were so blurry I tried dozens of variations of incomplete words and prayed Google would understand enough to help. And even if the title was clear, it wasn’t always obvious which book it actually was, requiring more digging and searching for older versions of covers.

As it says in the subtitle, this is a not-quite-comprehensive list. It has a lot, but it’s also missing a lot. I started with the pilot and stopped my minute-by-minute analyzation at season 2 episode 14 because it was making my favorite show feel like work. And I don’t want that. Parks is for good times.

So here’s what I have so far, which does include references to books in later episodes and some other random stuff.

If you’re a fan of the show Parks and Recreation, I think you will enjoy what’s here.

Leslie Knope

Leslie, as you would guess, has far and away more books on her shelves than any other character. Take a deep breath. Here we go.

Books on Leslie Knope’s Shelf Behind Her Desk

• A Remarkable Woman: A Biography of Katherine Hepburn by Anne Edwards
• Reflections: Life After The White House by Barbara Bush
• An American Life by Ronald Reagan
• Eisenhower and the American Crusades by Herbert S. Parmet
• The Politician: The Life and Times of Lyndon Johnson by Ronnie Dugger