The late pop singer Michael Jackson published three books during his lifetime, and read like a writer–he reportedly owned 10,000 books and shopped at Los Angeles bookstores throughout his career.

According to an LA Times interview with the former owners of Dutton’s Books, Jackson would occasionally visit the Brentwood bookstore. He gravitated towards the poetry section, and his favorite poet was Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The article also quoted Bob Sanger, Jackson’s lawyer: “We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history and sociology dealing with race issues … But he was very well read in the classics of psychology and history and literature . . . Freud and Jung — go down the street and try and find five people who can talk about Freud and Jung.”