Book Lust

It was interesting read, she tells engagingly about books and I found a couple of books I want to read. So why only 2 stars?

1) She claims José Saramago and Soledad Puértolas are Latin American writers.
2) She writes four pages about romance novels and then crams science fiction, fantasy and horror all into one chapter. I happen to like scifi and fantasy, but not horror so much. And not romance novels. Yes, I know, I have read them and liked them, but - uh.
3) It is so very USonian. I am not. 90% of the subjects were of no interest to me. I am not the least interested in basketball or American presidents or Southern US states etc.

One of the most interesting ‘‘book about books'' I've had the pleasure to read. Nancy Pearl divides different themes, structural techniques, genres and authors, in alphabetical order, and each one of the chapters is accompanied by a comprehensive list of suggestive readings. Her writing is comprehensive and flowing, and although, I thought that she missed some books that are ‘‘landmarks'' in a few of the genres, she brings to focus many less-read novels and non-fiction books. Perfect for those of us who wish to broaden their reading material a bit and discover new literary worlds. Enjoy!

This book wasn't quite as engaging as I was expecting, especially as a book lover myself. Rather than suggesting books for different moods, Nancy Pearl presents many, many different categories of books. Unfortunately, the suggestions are often merely a list of books without providing enough information for the reader to decide if the book is worth reading.

However, that didn't stop me from adding a large number of books to my to-be-read list, so perhaps it is a good thing that the book wasn't more interesting to me.

A book friend told me about Book Lust and that was it....I had to go out and buy it. Just what I need, right? More Book Lust.

And then, of course, I had to share my Book Lust with others...so I mailed it off to four book lovers at On the Porch Swing Bookbox, one of my online book groups.

We ended up passing that book around all over the world on BookCrossing. I sent along a journal where people could add their own reading suggestions. It made 74 stops. It traveled all across the US, and then to Canada, Portugal, Australia, and many more places. See where it went here: https://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1044002. So much fun.