Nathan Fillion

As the son of two high school English teachers, Nathan Fillion learned early on that books possess magical qualities. For one thing, they can stop a clock. “Whatever our bedtime was as kids, we could stay up an extra half hour if we were reading. My parents didn’t care as long as I was under the spell of a Stephen King or a Douglas Adams,” recalls Fillion, who now plays a writer himself—mystery novelist–turned–crime solver Richard Castle—on ABC’s comedy-drama Castle. Those late nights growing up in Edmonton, Canada, got Fillion addicted. “Now I read in bed. I read at work. I read standing in line,” he says. “It’s like, ‘Hello, my name is Nathan and I am a reader.’”

To maintain his habit, the 41-year-old actor keeps digital books on his smartphone and tablet, and the old-fashioned kind everywhere else. “I still buy actual books,” he says, holding up a worn paperback of Jaws and bringing it to his face with a deep inhale. “The smell, having it in your hands—there’s really no substitute.”

What’s remarkable is that Fillion finds time to read anything other than scripts. Castle wrapped its fourth season with a steamy cliff-hanger in which his character finally hooked up with Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic), the detective he’s flirted with for years. Fillion’s not sure what romance will do for the couple’s chemistry next season. “I imagine there’s going to be a honeymoon phase, and then a honeymoon’s-over phase, where it’s like, ‘Can you pass me the remote?’ ” He laughs. “And then they’ll be fighting: ‘You watch too much TV.’ ‘You’re always cleaning your gun.’ Typical relationship stuff.”

Snappy dialogue comes naturally to the actor, whose parents, especially his mom, trained him early to read “cold,” as he puts it. “Being able to read something aloud with feeling the first time you looked at it was very important,” he says. “Now if I see an adult who reads aloud in a monotone, I say to myself, ‘Your mother failed you.’”

Fillion’s favorite books are a fitting selection for an actor who has earned serious cult status—just ask his million-plus Twitter followers—playing a superhuman priest on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a spaceship captain on Firefly and its movie spin-off, Serenity. “I’m the biggest geek of all,” he says. “Adventure, fantasy, comic books—I can’t get enough.”

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In fact, now it can be told: Comic books in particular helped Fillion keep the lights on as a kid. “You know,” he says, sounding a tad guilty, “some of those summer nights, I’d read great literature. But more than a few times, I’d have a comic book hidden away. Hey, either way, I got to stay up late doing something I loved.”

Fillion is a cofounder of Kids Need to Read, which provides books for schools, libraries, and literacy programs.

Nathan Fillion’s Favorite Reads:

Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence

by Michael Capuzzo “I love reading about shark attacks,” Fillion says about this real-life chronicle of a Jaws-like rampage on the New Jersey coast in 1916. “That stuff fascinates me. A book that can make you afraid? I love it.”

A Song of Ice and Fire series

by George R. R. Martin “I just read these recently. Molly Quinn, who plays my daughter on Castle, got me into HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is thrilling. [A Game of Thrones is the first volume in Martin’s fantasy series.] I was transported.”

World War Z

by Max Brooks “I like post-apocalyptic anything,” says Fillion of this novel about a war between humans and zombies. “I like the idea of, how do you make your way when the whole society collapses? World War Z makes it very, very real. It’s a really well-thought-out book.”

The Spenser detective novels

by Robert B. Parker “Spenser’s supertough, but he’s not indestructible. He’s got just the right amount of macho. If they remake that TV series [Spenser: For Hire, in which Robert Urich starred in the 1980s], I’d be interested. That’d be cool.”

n this Sunday’s issue of PARADE, Castle’s Nathan Fillion, 41, reveals his favorite reads and confeses why he’s hooked on books in PARADE’s summer reading issue.

In the extras below, the actor opens up about his summer plans, bringing Firefly back, and the power of Twitter.

On growing up with English-teach parents.

“Grammar was a big deal. We could not use a double negative or end our sentences with prepositions. We couldn’t split infinitives. And we weren’t allowed to say ‘eh’ — you know, Canadians are fond of that stereotype of saying ‘eh’ at the end of their sentences. Now I catch my parents saying it!”

What his parents think of him in Castle.

“My parents are big fans of anything I do. They have been far less critical of Castle than anything else I’ve done. There are other projects that that I don’t think were really their cup of tea. But Castle suits their sensibilities very well.”

On taking time off this summer.

“For this hiatus I have two very small jobs planned, and then after that it’s just free time. I’m looking forward to some travel with my brother. We take a bucket list trip every summer; he’s been an amazing travel companion. This year it’s going to be Brazil—Rio de Janeiro for sure. Morena Baccarin, who I did Firefly with, is from Brazil so she’s going to suggest I take her mom to dinner.”

On the buzz that Firefly might be revived.

“There’ve been rumors for 10 years about that darn thing coming back. It was heartbreak for me when Firefly got canceled. The fact that we actually got a movie out of it [Serenity], bringing back characters I hadn’t had enough of yet, was a dream come true for me. Joss [Whedon] gave me the lead in a film, and that put me on a different path. Now I can be considered for a lead in a picture. So at this point to say I want more—it’s too selfish. I got exactly what I wanted.”

On filming Much Ado About Nothing with Joss Whedon.

“Joss has Shakespeare brunches at his house. He’ll assign everybody a character, and you’ll go have brunch and read through Shakespeare. He said, ‘Hey, we’re going to film one of these in my backyard, it’s going to be great.’ I have never performed Shakespeare. Reading it is one thing, performing it is another—memorizing it, locking it down, making choices. . . It’s very difficult. And at the time I was filming Castle and had something that I had to do on my weekend. I tried to chicken out. I called Joss and said, ‘I’m not going to be ready for the weekend. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do this.’ And he did not let me chicken out. He said, ‘Look, you’re going to be great. This is something we are doing as a lark. This is not something that is going to be a crushing burden. You worry too much.’ He talked me down off of the roof, and I was so glad.

"I went to his house and for a little thing that we were filming in his backyard there were three camera guys, a sound department, cables everywhere. The lights, screen, blinds, catering better than they have on a lot of the shows I’ve been on, wardrobe and makeup departments. I mean, it was a production. I said, ‘What the hell, man?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I can’t do anything small.’”

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On the power of Twitter.

“Being on stage, and the immediacy of the audience’s reaction, is a big thrill. With film and television you don’t so much have that audience interaction anymore. The best you can hope for is that someone sees you on the street and says something or sends you a letter. But thanks to social media and the Internet, you get a very immediate reaction. You can watch your program on TV and scroll through Twitter, with people are commenting as you go. I like that about social media, the immediacy.”