Susan here. Recently I read an intriguing and wonderful novel, which I mentioned in our last What We’re Reading post—The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell. The story centers around the last of the Bronte family, and her relationship to that legacy, to books, literary questions and secrets–a top-notch and enthralling literary mystery. And I realize, enjoying that read so much, that I'm especially drawn to this sort of sub-sub-category: books about books. I love mysteries, thrillers, romances too, where a primary focus of the book, no matter the genre, centers on books or a book, an author, an old or ancient mystery, a field of knowledge: I love books about books.
"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." –Louisa May Alcott
"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks / And all the sweet serenity of books." — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It’s more than another bibliophilic compulsion (as in, never enough books!!). Novels about books pose literary questions and pursue mysteries about rare books, ancient texts, medieval manuscripts, later literary treasures—and the stories often involve authors, collectors, harboring or investigating secrets contained in books. All of these things absolutely fascinate me, and I gravitate to this kind of book often. Lately I'm in that sort of mode, hungry for books within books, stories about writing, authors, stories, and I'm grazing through my bookshelves looking for just such reads.
The setting might be contemporary, as in The Madwoman Upstairs or Geraldine Brooks’ The People of the Book or Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale, or the plot might move back and forth in time, as in A.S. Byatt’s Possession. It might be set in the past, as in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief or Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Stories about books are often multi-layered mysteries leading deep into warrens and mazes about history or esoteric knowledge or ancient secrets that just might threaten or influence humanity. Plots centering on old, missing, stolen, mysterious and valuable books can be found in any genre and category—I’ve written a few myself, such as Waking the Princess, where a Victorian historian’s work leads the hero and heroine to secrets about the real 
King Arthur, or in The Black Thorne’s Rose, where the heroine, a manuscript illuminator, includes secrets in the manuscripts she illustrates—though plots about books most naturally lend themselves to mystery and thriller genres, where the scope can be large-scale.
In The Madwoman Upstairs and The Thirteenth Tale, a rabbit hole takes the reader wandering into the very nature of the act of reading and thinking and the interplay of author, story, and reader. They can be dynamic, playing off one another, mutually dependent and elevating one another. A book does not exist without its author… nor its reader, in a sense (like the tree in the forest, what's in the book without the reader?). Readers are an essential piece of the formula of what gives a book meaning and purpose. We turn the pages, we experience, we think and feel, we activate the story in a sense. Not many novels explore these facets of reading and the synergism of author, story, book and reader, yet those that do often take on deep and intriguing layers.
Books about books explore fascinating questions, and as the story spirals around, the reader can gain a little more than expected in those pages when they sit down to an entertaining, wonderful read. I like to ponder, sometimes, what, why, and how we read, stepping back to look at that perspective now and then. Susan Hill’s Howard’s End Is On the Landing is a wonderful exploration of what and how and why we read and treasure the books we read. And — most often — in any novel, it's the entertainment and excitement of the story that I'm looking for and loving the most . . . .
Books about books can be fun fantasies, too, as in Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair or Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart, or 
William Goldman's incomparable The Princess Bride, about a grandfather reading a book to his grandson. And in these, too, the very nature of story, reader, author and subject matter are ingrained.
Books contain, preserve and protect knowledge, and we often have a natural and sometimes insatiable curiosity about the past and particularly about ancient reserves of wisdom, learning, or secrets about humanity. And as a bit of a bonus, I often find that the writing itself, the author's craft, in such books, can be beautiful and to be savored.
Not only do I love stories about books – I adore big glossy picture books about books, manuscripts, rare books, collecting books, or books on displaying and decorating with books and bookcases. In my living room is a growing stack of books featuring houses crammed to bursting with books and bookcases, and of course among those volumes are gorgeous books about the extraordinary beauty of libraries.
Along with the books mentioned above, here are some others among my favorite books-about-books,
as well as a few I haven’t read yet, but will definitely get to as soon as possible!
The Princess Bride, William Goldman
The Club Dumas, Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman
The Haunted Bookshiop, Christopher Morley
The Library: A World History, James Campbell
Books Make a Home, Damien Thompson
Living With Books, Alan Powers
This is simply a never-ending list. If you too are fascinated by stories about books, literature, ancient or hidden secrets within books, please share some of your favorite titles! What's the pull of this kind of story for you, if you're a fan of this sort of thing too?
To be perfectly honest, I have never been drawn to books about books. Or even noticed much that books were mentioned within a story.
But the first book that came to mind for me was DANGEROUS WORKS by Caroline Warfield. The heroine is the daughter of a duke who is interested in researching information about ancient Greek women poets. Her intellectual pursuits and the personal price she pays are an important part of the story. But again, to tell the truth, it was the love story and Ms. Warfield’s ability to tell a good story that kept me turning the pages.
To be perfectly honest, I have never been drawn to books about books. Or even noticed much that books were mentioned within a story.
But the first book that came to mind for me was DANGEROUS WORKS by Caroline Warfield. The heroine is the daughter of a duke who is interested in researching information about ancient Greek women poets. Her intellectual pursuits and the personal price she pays are an important part of the story. But again, to tell the truth, it was the love story and Ms. Warfield’s ability to tell a good story that kept me turning the pages.
To be perfectly honest, I have never been drawn to books about books. Or even noticed much that books were mentioned within a story.
But the first book that came to mind for me was DANGEROUS WORKS by Caroline Warfield. The heroine is the daughter of a duke who is interested in researching information about ancient Greek women poets. Her intellectual pursuits and the personal price she pays are an important part of the story. But again, to tell the truth, it was the love story and Ms. Warfield’s ability to tell a good story that kept me turning the pages.
To be perfectly honest, I have never been drawn to books about books. Or even noticed much that books were mentioned within a story.
But the first book that came to mind for me was DANGEROUS WORKS by Caroline Warfield. The heroine is the daughter of a duke who is interested in researching information about ancient Greek women poets. Her intellectual pursuits and the personal price she pays are an important part of the story. But again, to tell the truth, it was the love story and Ms. Warfield’s ability to tell a good story that kept me turning the pages.
To be perfectly honest, I have never been drawn to books about books. Or even noticed much that books were mentioned within a story.
But the first book that came to mind for me was DANGEROUS WORKS by Caroline Warfield. The heroine is the daughter of a duke who is interested in researching information about ancient Greek women poets. Her intellectual pursuits and the personal price she pays are an important part of the story. But again, to tell the truth, it was the love story and Ms. Warfield’s ability to tell a good story that kept me turning the pages.
I actually just finished Aerendgast: The Lost History of Jane Austen not too long ago. It’s got the whole history of an author and mystery and murder thing going. Using the premise that Jane Austen had fallen in love and had a love child but that it was kept secret for obvious reasons and whilst she thought the child was stillborn, it was actually just raised by someone else. Years later Jane is haunting a modern ancestor trying to get her to find out what happened to the baby. It’s very interesting if a bit fantastical. As a Jane Austen fan, I’ve read several about her and her books, but this is the most recent one.
I actually just finished Aerendgast: The Lost History of Jane Austen not too long ago. It’s got the whole history of an author and mystery and murder thing going. Using the premise that Jane Austen had fallen in love and had a love child but that it was kept secret for obvious reasons and whilst she thought the child was stillborn, it was actually just raised by someone else. Years later Jane is haunting a modern ancestor trying to get her to find out what happened to the baby. It’s very interesting if a bit fantastical. As a Jane Austen fan, I’ve read several about her and her books, but this is the most recent one.
I actually just finished Aerendgast: The Lost History of Jane Austen not too long ago. It’s got the whole history of an author and mystery and murder thing going. Using the premise that Jane Austen had fallen in love and had a love child but that it was kept secret for obvious reasons and whilst she thought the child was stillborn, it was actually just raised by someone else. Years later Jane is haunting a modern ancestor trying to get her to find out what happened to the baby. It’s very interesting if a bit fantastical. As a Jane Austen fan, I’ve read several about her and her books, but this is the most recent one.
I actually just finished Aerendgast: The Lost History of Jane Austen not too long ago. It’s got the whole history of an author and mystery and murder thing going. Using the premise that Jane Austen had fallen in love and had a love child but that it was kept secret for obvious reasons and whilst she thought the child was stillborn, it was actually just raised by someone else. Years later Jane is haunting a modern ancestor trying to get her to find out what happened to the baby. It’s very interesting if a bit fantastical. As a Jane Austen fan, I’ve read several about her and her books, but this is the most recent one.
I actually just finished Aerendgast: The Lost History of Jane Austen not too long ago. It’s got the whole history of an author and mystery and murder thing going. Using the premise that Jane Austen had fallen in love and had a love child but that it was kept secret for obvious reasons and whilst she thought the child was stillborn, it was actually just raised by someone else. Years later Jane is haunting a modern ancestor trying to get her to find out what happened to the baby. It’s very interesting if a bit fantastical. As a Jane Austen fan, I’ve read several about her and her books, but this is the most recent one.
Thanks for an enjoyable post! I’m also a fan of books about books particularly non-fiction works about books for children. My two favorites are Michele Landsberg’s Reading for the Love of It and Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook.
Thanks for an enjoyable post! I’m also a fan of books about books particularly non-fiction works about books for children. My two favorites are Michele Landsberg’s Reading for the Love of It and Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook.
Thanks for an enjoyable post! I’m also a fan of books about books particularly non-fiction works about books for children. My two favorites are Michele Landsberg’s Reading for the Love of It and Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook.
Thanks for an enjoyable post! I’m also a fan of books about books particularly non-fiction works about books for children. My two favorites are Michele Landsberg’s Reading for the Love of It and Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook.
Thanks for an enjoyable post! I’m also a fan of books about books particularly non-fiction works about books for children. My two favorites are Michele Landsberg’s Reading for the Love of It and Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook.
I probably love this sub-sub genre, but I can’t say that I have noticed it as such. The only book on your list that I have read is “The Princess Bride” (and this is one of the VERY few cases where the movie outdid the book!) And that brings up “As You Wish” by Cary Elwes — a book about making the movie, which in this case is also about the book!
I think in many of the cases where a book is involved, I am only slightly aware of the book while I’m reading. In Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path, the problems of the hero and heroine hold one’s attention, but the book, and the movie that comes of it are at the core.
And in one of Susanna Kearsley’s books (I think it’s Desparate Fortune) the diaries are at the heart of both stories, but it was the special mental condition that held my attention as I read.
I probably love this sub-sub genre, but I can’t say that I have noticed it as such. The only book on your list that I have read is “The Princess Bride” (and this is one of the VERY few cases where the movie outdid the book!) And that brings up “As You Wish” by Cary Elwes — a book about making the movie, which in this case is also about the book!
I think in many of the cases where a book is involved, I am only slightly aware of the book while I’m reading. In Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path, the problems of the hero and heroine hold one’s attention, but the book, and the movie that comes of it are at the core.
And in one of Susanna Kearsley’s books (I think it’s Desparate Fortune) the diaries are at the heart of both stories, but it was the special mental condition that held my attention as I read.
I probably love this sub-sub genre, but I can’t say that I have noticed it as such. The only book on your list that I have read is “The Princess Bride” (and this is one of the VERY few cases where the movie outdid the book!) And that brings up “As You Wish” by Cary Elwes — a book about making the movie, which in this case is also about the book!
I think in many of the cases where a book is involved, I am only slightly aware of the book while I’m reading. In Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path, the problems of the hero and heroine hold one’s attention, but the book, and the movie that comes of it are at the core.
And in one of Susanna Kearsley’s books (I think it’s Desparate Fortune) the diaries are at the heart of both stories, but it was the special mental condition that held my attention as I read.
I probably love this sub-sub genre, but I can’t say that I have noticed it as such. The only book on your list that I have read is “The Princess Bride” (and this is one of the VERY few cases where the movie outdid the book!) And that brings up “As You Wish” by Cary Elwes — a book about making the movie, which in this case is also about the book!
I think in many of the cases where a book is involved, I am only slightly aware of the book while I’m reading. In Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path, the problems of the hero and heroine hold one’s attention, but the book, and the movie that comes of it are at the core.
And in one of Susanna Kearsley’s books (I think it’s Desparate Fortune) the diaries are at the heart of both stories, but it was the special mental condition that held my attention as I read.
I probably love this sub-sub genre, but I can’t say that I have noticed it as such. The only book on your list that I have read is “The Princess Bride” (and this is one of the VERY few cases where the movie outdid the book!) And that brings up “As You Wish” by Cary Elwes — a book about making the movie, which in this case is also about the book!
I think in many of the cases where a book is involved, I am only slightly aware of the book while I’m reading. In Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path, the problems of the hero and heroine hold one’s attention, but the book, and the movie that comes of it are at the core.
And in one of Susanna Kearsley’s books (I think it’s Desparate Fortune) the diaries are at the heart of both stories, but it was the special mental condition that held my attention as I read.
I enjoy books about books, book clubs and book stores. I enjoy the idea that people are discussing, enjoying and treasuring books.
And I did not realize that my situation has a name (bibliophilic compulsion). I really do love books and reading. But, that is better than other things which could be my addiction. Isn’t it?
I enjoy books about books, book clubs and book stores. I enjoy the idea that people are discussing, enjoying and treasuring books.
And I did not realize that my situation has a name (bibliophilic compulsion). I really do love books and reading. But, that is better than other things which could be my addiction. Isn’t it?
I enjoy books about books, book clubs and book stores. I enjoy the idea that people are discussing, enjoying and treasuring books.
And I did not realize that my situation has a name (bibliophilic compulsion). I really do love books and reading. But, that is better than other things which could be my addiction. Isn’t it?
I enjoy books about books, book clubs and book stores. I enjoy the idea that people are discussing, enjoying and treasuring books.
And I did not realize that my situation has a name (bibliophilic compulsion). I really do love books and reading. But, that is better than other things which could be my addiction. Isn’t it?
I enjoy books about books, book clubs and book stores. I enjoy the idea that people are discussing, enjoying and treasuring books.
And I did not realize that my situation has a name (bibliophilic compulsion). I really do love books and reading. But, that is better than other things which could be my addiction. Isn’t it?
Thanks, Susan. I generally enjoy the genre, but to me it’s like any other book – if it’s done well with good characters, I’m all in; if not, then I easily forget it. I loved Inkheart and thought its imagery and storyline fantastic but I did not enjoy the second volume as much and thoroughly disliked the third. I loved, loved, loved The Princess Bride, and one of my greatest pleasures was introducing the book to my new husband for the first time well on . . . many years ago. I adored the idea of a literary apothecary in The Little Paris Bookshop, but The Thirteenth Tale didn’t do it for me. Fairly recently I fell in love with The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and then went on to read and enjoy several other books by Gabrielle Zevin – a brilliant young author who succeeds in multiple genres. But thanks to this column I’m now going to move Susanna’s Desperate Fortune and Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path higher up on my TBR pile!
Thanks, Susan. I generally enjoy the genre, but to me it’s like any other book – if it’s done well with good characters, I’m all in; if not, then I easily forget it. I loved Inkheart and thought its imagery and storyline fantastic but I did not enjoy the second volume as much and thoroughly disliked the third. I loved, loved, loved The Princess Bride, and one of my greatest pleasures was introducing the book to my new husband for the first time well on . . . many years ago. I adored the idea of a literary apothecary in The Little Paris Bookshop, but The Thirteenth Tale didn’t do it for me. Fairly recently I fell in love with The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and then went on to read and enjoy several other books by Gabrielle Zevin – a brilliant young author who succeeds in multiple genres. But thanks to this column I’m now going to move Susanna’s Desperate Fortune and Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path higher up on my TBR pile!
Thanks, Susan. I generally enjoy the genre, but to me it’s like any other book – if it’s done well with good characters, I’m all in; if not, then I easily forget it. I loved Inkheart and thought its imagery and storyline fantastic but I did not enjoy the second volume as much and thoroughly disliked the third. I loved, loved, loved The Princess Bride, and one of my greatest pleasures was introducing the book to my new husband for the first time well on . . . many years ago. I adored the idea of a literary apothecary in The Little Paris Bookshop, but The Thirteenth Tale didn’t do it for me. Fairly recently I fell in love with The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and then went on to read and enjoy several other books by Gabrielle Zevin – a brilliant young author who succeeds in multiple genres. But thanks to this column I’m now going to move Susanna’s Desperate Fortune and Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path higher up on my TBR pile!
Thanks, Susan. I generally enjoy the genre, but to me it’s like any other book – if it’s done well with good characters, I’m all in; if not, then I easily forget it. I loved Inkheart and thought its imagery and storyline fantastic but I did not enjoy the second volume as much and thoroughly disliked the third. I loved, loved, loved The Princess Bride, and one of my greatest pleasures was introducing the book to my new husband for the first time well on . . . many years ago. I adored the idea of a literary apothecary in The Little Paris Bookshop, but The Thirteenth Tale didn’t do it for me. Fairly recently I fell in love with The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and then went on to read and enjoy several other books by Gabrielle Zevin – a brilliant young author who succeeds in multiple genres. But thanks to this column I’m now going to move Susanna’s Desperate Fortune and Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path higher up on my TBR pile!
Thanks, Susan. I generally enjoy the genre, but to me it’s like any other book – if it’s done well with good characters, I’m all in; if not, then I easily forget it. I loved Inkheart and thought its imagery and storyline fantastic but I did not enjoy the second volume as much and thoroughly disliked the third. I loved, loved, loved The Princess Bride, and one of my greatest pleasures was introducing the book to my new husband for the first time well on . . . many years ago. I adored the idea of a literary apothecary in The Little Paris Bookshop, but The Thirteenth Tale didn’t do it for me. Fairly recently I fell in love with The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and then went on to read and enjoy several other books by Gabrielle Zevin – a brilliant young author who succeeds in multiple genres. But thanks to this column I’m now going to move Susanna’s Desperate Fortune and Mary Jo’s The Spiral Path higher up on my TBR pile!
I loved Inkheart and the film was brilliant. I’m not too sure what books are in this genre but one I read many years ago in my early teens, (and which I still have and read occasionally), is called Jane In and Out of The Book. It’s about a little girl who lives in a castle with eccentric parents. She spends a lot of time on her own and while exploring the attics discovers a book, a huge book. When she opens the book and reads a rhyme she finds there she sinks into it and finds herself in the story. This happens many times and she enters a different storyland every time. I remember being fascinated by it and never forgot it. Great post.
I loved Inkheart and the film was brilliant. I’m not too sure what books are in this genre but one I read many years ago in my early teens, (and which I still have and read occasionally), is called Jane In and Out of The Book. It’s about a little girl who lives in a castle with eccentric parents. She spends a lot of time on her own and while exploring the attics discovers a book, a huge book. When she opens the book and reads a rhyme she finds there she sinks into it and finds herself in the story. This happens many times and she enters a different storyland every time. I remember being fascinated by it and never forgot it. Great post.
I loved Inkheart and the film was brilliant. I’m not too sure what books are in this genre but one I read many years ago in my early teens, (and which I still have and read occasionally), is called Jane In and Out of The Book. It’s about a little girl who lives in a castle with eccentric parents. She spends a lot of time on her own and while exploring the attics discovers a book, a huge book. When she opens the book and reads a rhyme she finds there she sinks into it and finds herself in the story. This happens many times and she enters a different storyland every time. I remember being fascinated by it and never forgot it. Great post.
I loved Inkheart and the film was brilliant. I’m not too sure what books are in this genre but one I read many years ago in my early teens, (and which I still have and read occasionally), is called Jane In and Out of The Book. It’s about a little girl who lives in a castle with eccentric parents. She spends a lot of time on her own and while exploring the attics discovers a book, a huge book. When she opens the book and reads a rhyme she finds there she sinks into it and finds herself in the story. This happens many times and she enters a different storyland every time. I remember being fascinated by it and never forgot it. Great post.
I loved Inkheart and the film was brilliant. I’m not too sure what books are in this genre but one I read many years ago in my early teens, (and which I still have and read occasionally), is called Jane In and Out of The Book. It’s about a little girl who lives in a castle with eccentric parents. She spends a lot of time on her own and while exploring the attics discovers a book, a huge book. When she opens the book and reads a rhyme she finds there she sinks into it and finds herself in the story. This happens many times and she enters a different storyland every time. I remember being fascinated by it and never forgot it. Great post.
I know I’m late, but I could not resist joining the conversation on this topic.
I counted ten titles that I have read on the list, and The Madwoman Upstairs is on my Kindle waiting to be read. Japer Fforde is a favorite. One of my favorite teaching experiences involved teaching The Eyre Affair with Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. I also love Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, a YA novel about an uber fan of a Harry Potter-like series, and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Swedish novelist Katarina Bivald’s debut work. The latter is the story of Sara Lindqvist who gives up her job in a bookstore and her home in Sweden to visit an American penpal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. The penpal is dead by the time Sara arrives, and Sara ends up opening a bookstore with her friend’s books. The novel is packed with references to books. I fell in love with it when I read this sentence describing Sara’s reaction to her penpal’s book collection: “She could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of books flickering in front of her as the room started spinning before her eyes.”
Francine Prose’s wonderful Reading Like a Writer is a book about writing for writers, but it is also a book about books for readers, as Prose makes clear when she advises “unhooking the connection that makes you think you have to have an opinion about the book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you.”
I know I’m late, but I could not resist joining the conversation on this topic.
I counted ten titles that I have read on the list, and The Madwoman Upstairs is on my Kindle waiting to be read. Japer Fforde is a favorite. One of my favorite teaching experiences involved teaching The Eyre Affair with Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. I also love Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, a YA novel about an uber fan of a Harry Potter-like series, and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Swedish novelist Katarina Bivald’s debut work. The latter is the story of Sara Lindqvist who gives up her job in a bookstore and her home in Sweden to visit an American penpal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. The penpal is dead by the time Sara arrives, and Sara ends up opening a bookstore with her friend’s books. The novel is packed with references to books. I fell in love with it when I read this sentence describing Sara’s reaction to her penpal’s book collection: “She could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of books flickering in front of her as the room started spinning before her eyes.”
Francine Prose’s wonderful Reading Like a Writer is a book about writing for writers, but it is also a book about books for readers, as Prose makes clear when she advises “unhooking the connection that makes you think you have to have an opinion about the book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you.”
I know I’m late, but I could not resist joining the conversation on this topic.
I counted ten titles that I have read on the list, and The Madwoman Upstairs is on my Kindle waiting to be read. Japer Fforde is a favorite. One of my favorite teaching experiences involved teaching The Eyre Affair with Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. I also love Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, a YA novel about an uber fan of a Harry Potter-like series, and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Swedish novelist Katarina Bivald’s debut work. The latter is the story of Sara Lindqvist who gives up her job in a bookstore and her home in Sweden to visit an American penpal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. The penpal is dead by the time Sara arrives, and Sara ends up opening a bookstore with her friend’s books. The novel is packed with references to books. I fell in love with it when I read this sentence describing Sara’s reaction to her penpal’s book collection: “She could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of books flickering in front of her as the room started spinning before her eyes.”
Francine Prose’s wonderful Reading Like a Writer is a book about writing for writers, but it is also a book about books for readers, as Prose makes clear when she advises “unhooking the connection that makes you think you have to have an opinion about the book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you.”
I know I’m late, but I could not resist joining the conversation on this topic.
I counted ten titles that I have read on the list, and The Madwoman Upstairs is on my Kindle waiting to be read. Japer Fforde is a favorite. One of my favorite teaching experiences involved teaching The Eyre Affair with Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. I also love Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, a YA novel about an uber fan of a Harry Potter-like series, and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Swedish novelist Katarina Bivald’s debut work. The latter is the story of Sara Lindqvist who gives up her job in a bookstore and her home in Sweden to visit an American penpal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. The penpal is dead by the time Sara arrives, and Sara ends up opening a bookstore with her friend’s books. The novel is packed with references to books. I fell in love with it when I read this sentence describing Sara’s reaction to her penpal’s book collection: “She could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of books flickering in front of her as the room started spinning before her eyes.”
Francine Prose’s wonderful Reading Like a Writer is a book about writing for writers, but it is also a book about books for readers, as Prose makes clear when she advises “unhooking the connection that makes you think you have to have an opinion about the book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you.”
I know I’m late, but I could not resist joining the conversation on this topic.
I counted ten titles that I have read on the list, and The Madwoman Upstairs is on my Kindle waiting to be read. Japer Fforde is a favorite. One of my favorite teaching experiences involved teaching The Eyre Affair with Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. I also love Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, a YA novel about an uber fan of a Harry Potter-like series, and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Swedish novelist Katarina Bivald’s debut work. The latter is the story of Sara Lindqvist who gives up her job in a bookstore and her home in Sweden to visit an American penpal in Broken Wheel, Iowa. The penpal is dead by the time Sara arrives, and Sara ends up opening a bookstore with her friend’s books. The novel is packed with references to books. I fell in love with it when I read this sentence describing Sara’s reaction to her penpal’s book collection: “She could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of books flickering in front of her as the room started spinning before her eyes.”
Francine Prose’s wonderful Reading Like a Writer is a book about writing for writers, but it is also a book about books for readers, as Prose makes clear when she advises “unhooking the connection that makes you think you have to have an opinion about the book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you.”
Thanks, Janga. I own most of the books you mentioned, so now you’ve inspired me to move them up in the piles. Sigh – so many wonderful books!
Thanks, Janga. I own most of the books you mentioned, so now you’ve inspired me to move them up in the piles. Sigh – so many wonderful books!
Thanks, Janga. I own most of the books you mentioned, so now you’ve inspired me to move them up in the piles. Sigh – so many wonderful books!
Thanks, Janga. I own most of the books you mentioned, so now you’ve inspired me to move them up in the piles. Sigh – so many wonderful books!
Thanks, Janga. I own most of the books you mentioned, so now you’ve inspired me to move them up in the piles. Sigh – so many wonderful books!