Gardiner, Maine ? Gardiner, Maine – Gregg Allman acknowledges that he doesn’t read as much as he should. But when a friend gave him a copy of “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” the rocker couldn’t put it down.

“I’ve had it three days and am almost finished, at which time I plan to read it again,” the singer and songwriter from The Allman Brothers Band told a retired Maine librarian who asked him what his favorite book is.

Allman joins actors, authors, politicians, a Supreme Court justice and a Harvard astrophysicist who responded to Glenna Nowell’s queries for her annual “Who Reads What?” list in time for National Library Week, which begins Sunday.

Their responses ranged from the nice – Rosalynn Carter’s favorite is the Bible – to the naughty: dirty joke books favored by writer Piers Anthony.

Nowell, a silver-haired retired librarian, started writing to celebrities in 1988 for her annual list. She searches the Internet for her eclectic collections of names, based on suggestions from friends and people who e-mail her.

A sizable share of responses come from writers, who are voracious readers by nature. A few contact Nowell out of the blue. Nowell tries to mix up her lists, getting people of all political parties and from varied backgrounds. She even seeks names that are scattered about the alphabet.

With an impish smile, she said she chose Allman because she wanted someone with a last name starting with A.

This year, she got responses from two Hollywood veterans: Jane Russell and Eva Marie Saint.

Russell, who played opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” looks to the heavens these days for her literary inspiration, citing “Hearing God” by Lory Basham Jones.

Saint, who won an Academy Award for her 1954 film debut in “On the Waterfront,” lists “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion and “Elia Kazan: A Biography” by Richard Schickel, about the director of “On the Waterfront.”

Glenna Nowell, a retired librarian who compiles an annual Who

Over the years, two consistent favorites have been the Bible and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Who Reads What?

Celebrities cite their favorite books for Glenna Nowell’s 2006 “Who Reads What?” list.

Gregg Allman, musician: “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom

Piers Anthony, writer: “Rationale of the Dirty Joke” and “No Laughing Matter” by Gershon Legman

Rosalynn Carter, former first lady: the Bible

Barbara Delinsky, writer: “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving; “Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks

Margaret Geller, astrophysicist: “The End of Poverty” by Jeffrey Sachs; “A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan” by Nelofer Pazira

Newt Gingrich, former U.S. House speaker: “The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice: “John Marshall: Definer of a Nation” by Jean Edward Smith; “The Lazy B” by Sandra Day O’Connor and H. Alan Day

Nadine Gordimer, writer: “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust

Sue Grafton, writer: “Snobs” by Julian Fellowes

Kitty Kelley, biographer: “Gentlemen’s Agreement” by Laura Hobson; “Strange Fruit” by Lillian Smith; “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain

George Pataki, New York governor: “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Paul Taylor, dancer and choreographer: “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville; Paul Taylor’s autobiography, “Private Domain”

Tom Vilsack, Iowa governor: “The World Is Flat” by Thomas Friedman