Finished 9-3-09, rating 3.5/5, non-fiction/reference, pub. 2003
Whenever I begin reading a new book, I am embarking on a new, uncharted journey with an unmarked destination. I never know where a particular book will take me, toward what other books I will be led.
from the Introduction
I love lists and I love books, so this book with it’s very cool title made me check it out of the library. Librarian and author, Nancy Pearl, has compiled lists of books that range from Southern fiction to bicycling. Each of the more than 175 categories has a page or so written about it with her experiences and book recommendations. She has also thrown in authors who she thinks are ‘too good to miss’.
There are many things I liked about this book. Nancy obviously has a passion for reading and books and knows what she’s talking about. Too her credit I hadn’t heard of many of these books and a few made it onto my wish list. As a romance reader I loved her recommendations in the area, they are some of my favorites.The writing style is very friendly and accessible.
There are a few things that kept me from loving this book. For me, I was disappointed in how few fiction categories there were. She spent a lot of time on non-fiction topics and I think it may have been nice to do one book for each fiction and non-fiction. And writing a book of lists is essentially an impossible task. There are just too many books out there! So, one person trying to do it is hit or miss. It did get me thinking that I could compile my own lists and how much fun it would be to try.
I think this would be a great book for booksellers or librarians. And I recommend all others who lust after books to go and check this out of their library. There is also a sequel, More Book Lust.
This book sounds sooo good, love the name, love the name of the sequel even more. Maybe you should create a list of your own, that would be so much fun 🙂
After circling around the book blogs in Google Reader, my TBR list is becoming overwhelmed, so I’ll have to avoid books like this.
I’ve tagged you to get your ABCs – here.
She could probably continue writing sequels over her entire lifetime with the amount of books that are out there. I’ve been really curious about this one for awhile now. It sounds like it would make a great reference resource. Thanks for the review, Stacy!
This does sound like a good idea, but it seems like it would be outdated in no time.
I guess it wouldn’t be a complete winner for me either with few fiction categories.
As a librarian I loved this one!! But I agree it could have used more fiction categories.
I am lusting after Book Lust and More Book Lust. As soon as I get near a library I’m going to find it. BTW, your comment about the Romance section is a great teaser. I want to get the book just to see if my favorites are in there too.
Isn’t it a wonderful book?! The only trouble is I don’t dare pick up my copy too often because I am running out of both houseroom and hours in the day!
Hi Stacy, thanks for the review. I kept seeing this at the bookstore but didn’t pick it up. This one sounds wonderful!
I want to look through this myself. I bet it’s wonderful.
I found this at our library’s used book sale in June – I read a lot of nonfiction, so it works well for me, but I do agree that it’s unbalanced (maybe showing Pearl’s preference?)