>>2071982"The Happy Prince and Other Fairy Tales" by Oscar Wilde is what Rei was reading in 1+2. In Q it's also the book Shinji picks up from the library to take for Rei Q(it's nice he remembers what the Rei he knows likes to read).
In 'The Happy Prince' the Prince is not real, but made artificially from gold. However, he is still able to make a difference to the people around him by giving all of himself for them, even if in the end he is blind and gets torn down and melted (read 'dies'). I don't think it's too much of a stretch to see why Rei, the girl 'made of straw' as she calls herself in the manga, would be reading this book. She also wishes to do things (i.e. Eva-piloting) for the people around her (in order to maintain her bond with them), saying it doesn't matter if she dies doing so.
