(This week, the creators of this meme are allowing every blogger
to create her own Top Ten list....)
I've never seen it listed in a literature text,
but one of my favorite genres is what I call Books-about-Books.
Here are some of my favorites:
Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments
by Michael Dirda
So Many Books, So Little Time
by Sara Nelson
Inkheart
by Cornelia Funke
How Reading Changed My Life
by Anna Quindlen
Tomas and the Library Lady
by Pat Mora
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
by Anne Fadiman
Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World
by Lawrence Goldstone
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading:
Finding and Losing Myself in Books
by Maureen Corrigan
Do you have any good recommendations for books-about-books?
What Top Ten list did you write this week?
Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.
books about books!! awesome list. i gotta check out tomas and the library lady.
ReplyDeletei did my list on books i need to re-read for this week's top ten tuesday freebie. hope you stop by.
-Michelle
Alberto Manguels a Reader on Reading & Italo Calvino's If on a winters night, a traveller.
ReplyDeleteI honestly haven't read either one of these, Parrish Lantern. (You can't see me, but I am jumping up and down with happiness. This is definitely a category of books that I love and sometimes I think I've exhausted the possibilities.)
ReplyDeleteOff to add these to my wishlist!
What a cute idea to do a list on books about books! I don't believe I have any suggestions for it, however.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Pablo Neruda quote. It's very romantic.
Great choice of top ten :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is probably A GENTLE MADNESS by Nicholas Basbanes.
ReplyDeleteGreat list- I loved Reading Lolita in Tehran.
ReplyDeleteYet another book I have not read, Bill. Another book to add to my wishlist....
ReplyDeleteGreat list and what a great idea for a list. I found it a lot harder than I thought to come up with my own list.
ReplyDeleteHello new friend! I love this list, and Dash and Lilys book of dares is an awesome book about reading and the love of reading. To add to your list (because I love books about books) if you haven't read these you must!
ReplyDeleteA Reading Life by Pat Conroy
A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Love and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books by Harold Rabinowitz, Rob Kaplan
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
and of course, my all time favorite, 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.
Nice choice of topic! I love Balzac & the LCS, especially how a love of books is intertwined with romantic love. Gorgeous book.
ReplyDeleteYou've listed some of my very favorite books about books, Deb.
ReplyDeleteUSED AND RARE is a classic as far as I'm concerned.
Also: HOW READING CHANGED MY LIFE and EX LIBRIS.
Loved them both.
INKHEART was terrific.
SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME is currently sitting here waiting for me to read it.
I've noted some of your other titles - added them to my TBR list.
I'll add two to your list:
HOWARD'S END IS ON THE LANDING by Susan Hill.
And the Goldstone's second book SLIGHLTY CHIPPED.
What an interesting topic! Great list, though the only book I've heard of is Inkheart. Ah well. haha:)
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever idea for a list! Thanks for sharing. I see you are giving away Dash & Lily- such an awesome book!
ReplyDeleteNice topic! I don't think I've read any of these. I'd add a picture book to the list, though - The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians!
ReplyDeleteI call these bibliobooks and I collect them. The latest one I read was The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, a satisfying read that, although written by a famous author, is really a reading journal of sorts by a guy who likes to read.
ReplyDeleteOf the books on your list, I enjoyed Used and Rare, although the spelling and proofing errors in the copy I read nearly drove me nuts; I liked So Many Books, So Little Time; and loved Ex Libris.
Here is a link to all the books on my blog that are tagged as bibliobooks: http://52books.blogspot.com/search/label/bibliobooks
I'm sure you can find some books in there that will become future favourites.
Pure "books about books" I especially recommend are:
"84 Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff,
"Letters to Alice, on first reading Jane Austen" by Fay Weldon,
most of "A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a book addict" by John Baxter,
"Maps & Legends: Reading and writing along the borderlands" by Michael Chabon,
"Living with Books" by Alan Powers and "At Home with Books" by Estelle Ellis & Caroline Seebohm with photographs by Christopher Simon Sykes (gorgeous coffee-table books both of them),
"A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books" by Nicholas A. Basbanes,
all the Book Lust books by Nancy Pearl;
and those are just the non-fiction.
I like books about books too. I haven't read many, but I have read a few. Great list!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I love Michael Dirda. His online chats and discussions at The Washington Post are some of my favorites - he always has such fantastic book suggestions. Great pick!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your suggestions, Yvette. I'm off to add these to my wishlist.
ReplyDeleteI love your list! The only one I have read is Reading Lolita in Tehran.
ReplyDeleteBooks about books ... great list! "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" is a great choice. Two of my other favorite books about books are "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks and "The Book Thief "by Markus Zusak.
ReplyDeleteNice list! Have you read Tolstoy and the Purple Chair?
ReplyDeleteCheck out Sash's Top Ten Guys Who Didn't Get The Girl!
Also check out our GREAT giveaways!
This is an awesome idea for a top ten list. I listened to Maureen Corrigan's Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading while driving. I found myself sitting in the car in parking lots or my driveway to keep listening. It was a great book!
ReplyDeleteHere’s my Top Ten Tuesday Freebie!
Thank you for that wonderful link to all your "bibliobooks", Bibliophile! I will take a good look at your list this weekend and add these to my wishlist.
ReplyDeleteGreat name for this genre.
I have read Purple Chair. I liked it a lot.
ReplyDeleteThanks for suggesting it.
What a great topic! I've yet to read "Inkheart" but have heard great things about it. I also put some of the books you listed on my tbr pile too. Thanks for the recommendations!
ReplyDeleteGreat choice! An idea I'd be tempted to steal...but I already did mine. Here are a few more books about books that I love:
ReplyDeleteOld Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion by Madeleine B Stern
Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe
Howards End Is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
Here's my Top Ten: http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-ten-books-that-ive-procrastinated.html
What a good list! I think the only book i have read about books is The Book Thief... I'll have to check some of these out!
ReplyDeleteJulia @ Broke and Bookish
I really like books about books as well. I remember you mentioning Ex Libris and putting it on my radar. I'm excited to see you are reading Emily, Alone also and I look forward to hearing what you think about it.
ReplyDeleteCome check out my list for the week at The Scarlet Letter.
I've just started Reading Lolita in Tehran... really enjoying it so far.
ReplyDeleteI've never read any books like this but I think I want to. I like non-fiction generally and in a way, reading book blogs is like reading a book about books. Very cool and unique list idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog - I've become a new follower.
Two of my favorites:
ReplyDeletePat Conroy's My Reading Life and Walter Moer's The City of Dreaming Books.
I must add City of Dreaming Books to my wishlist. Thanks, BookGirl.
ReplyDeleteI need to read all of these! Incidentally, this is how I got the title of bork--my friend saw that I was reading Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why and commented "wow! You're such a bork that you read books about reading!" I love it! Thanks for this list--all of the titles are going on my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a bork then. Thanks. I have always wished for a good name for myself.
ReplyDelete