This is my first non-fiction Five Books I’ve Read post and to no one’s surprise it’s about readers, book collectors and bookshops, although I suppose it could have been about travel or food. Here then are five books I’ve read about the wonderful world of books, each with a link to my review.
White Spines is Nicholas Royle’s entertaining memoir of book collecting, perfect for the more nerdish bibliophile which might well be you, dear reader. Royle is a very particular collector whose imprint of choice is Picador, the white spined variety although he has stretched to black Picador Classics over the years. The one that first caught his eye was Anna Kaven’s Ice, just a decade after Sonny Mehta set up the list in 1972. Since then, Royle’s obsession has taken him into a multitude of second-hand bookshops. I loved this funny, discursive book, stuffed full of bookish anecdotes. As a short story writer, novelist, publisher and editor, Royle’s thoroughly immersed in the book world with a multitude of contacts. Kudos to Salt Publishing for their attention to detail, decking Royle’s books out as an old school Picador and including a puff from Picador author and bibliophile Cathy Rentzenbrink on the cover.
Which leads me neatly to Rentzenbrink’s own reading memoir, Dear Reader, an unadulterated treat for those of us who 
spend as much of our time as possible with our heads stuck in a book. Using her reading as a framework, Rentzenbrink divides her book into chapters of her life, each followed by a section devoted to favourite reads on an appropriate theme. She’s a warm, open and empathetic writer, enthusiastic in her bookish recommendations. Inevitably the bookselling chapters chimed most with me, packed with stories from her time as an events manager my favourite of which is a chat with Lauren Bacall in the unpacking bay. Who wouldn’t treasure that? She and I are very different people – Rentzenbrink’s an extrovert, I’m the opposite – but there were a multitude of ‘me, too’ moments in her book, from the solace of reading during the most difficult times to not being able to remember being taught to read.
Andy Miller’s The Year of Reading Dangerously is a different sort of reading memoir. Like both Rentzenbrink and me, Miller did his time as a Waterstones bookseller before becoming a commissioning editor in publishing. Somewhere along the line he lost the art of reading attentively. Not only that but he’d spent much of his life pretending he’d read books he hadn’t, even to himself. When he starts reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and the Margarita it’s a glorious revelation. He and his wife set about putting together a list of fifty books which he dubs ‘The List of Betterment’. In between his reading, there are a multitude of digressions, many of them very funny but also several making some serious points about the way we read today and the distractions at every turn – literary festivals, bookshop events, radio shows, not to mention Twitter and bloggers…
As a bookseller, I’d have had piles of Henry Hitchings’ Browse stacked up in strategic piles at Christmas. Hitchings recalls his
own experiences behind the till in his introduction setting us up nicely for the fifteen essays that follow featuring authors from Ali Smith to Dorthe Nors, Andrey Kurkov to Daniel Kehlmann, all about bookshops. Some are entertaining, some more sober, all are interesting to the anoraks amongst us although my favourite is Kehlmann’s which takes us to Dussman’s in Berlin, a bookshop I fell in love with on a visit in 2016. It’s full of enjoyable bookshop yarns including Ian Sansom’s memories of working at Foyles in the ’90s when Christina Foyle still ruled the roost and Danny La Rue lived above the shop. Sansom left after two years, although he jumped rather than waiting to be pushed as so many Foyles booksellers were in those days, just before their employment rights kicked in.
Christina Foyle pops up in Jorge Carrión, Bookshops. Apparently, she took a trip to Stalinist Russia to negotiate a deal for books slated for burning. Who knew? Carrión isn’t a bookseller, current or ex, but he has spent an inordinate amount of time in bookshops on his travels and has a great deal of interest to say about them. He takes his readers on a journey around the world, dropping in on his favourite bookshops, from his home town of Barcelona to Buenos Aires, Sydney to Tangier, Paris to Denver, Colorado. This eruditely discursive book, full of bookselling history and passionate in its tone, explores bookshops as reflections of society and engines of social change, as places of resistance, cultural centres, meeting places and havens. He ends on a pleasingly optimistic note about the future of the bookshop, albeit a very different future from its history.
Any books about the book world you’d like to add to my list? Both fiction and non-fiction recommendations welcome.
If you’d like to explore more posts like this, I’ve listed them here.
One of my favourite reading categories : books and their readers. The year of reading dangerously appeals. Actually, they all do, but oh woe, the budget is staggering and lurching around.
All treats for bibliophiles!
A great bunch to add to my TBR pile!
Delighted to hear that!
Dear Reader was so lovely, a real comfort to read.
Isn’t it a treat. She’s such a welcoming writer.
I’ve read and loved three of these, and I suspect the other might now have to be added to the wishlist!!
All highly recommended. I think if you enjoyed one you’d enjoy them all.
I’ve read the first three but not the other two — that will have to be rectified 🙂
Satisfaction pretty much guaranteed with these five!
Cathy Rentzenbrink’s Dear Reader was such a great read and it was an eye-opener to discover how much she re-reads, something I do way less than I intend to do.
I know what you mean. I used to make my first book of the month a reread but fell out of the habit.
Oh, that was a great idea! I’ve reread a couple of books this year since finishing Cathy’s book and it was great. I enjoyed going back to familiar books. I struggle against anything too prescriptive but might try a way of working in more next year.
Maybe I’ll resurrect the habit. In theory, books I make space for on the shelves these days have been deemed worthy of a second go round.
Yes, same with most of mine. There’s just that small matter of getting around to that second reading!
I really liked A Year of Reading Dangerously and I have White Spines on my TBR, not sure when it came in so when I’m going to get to it, although I am galloping through all the little ones at the moment!
It’s a quick, easy and entertaining read, Liz. Really enjoyed it.
I do like a book about books, yet the only one of those I have read is The Year of Reading Dangerously. Really interested in White Spines though.
White Spines is so enjoyable. Royle has a great sense of humour about himself.
My favourite type of book! I’ve read the first three of these, and pretty sure I have Browse waiting. I read any book-about-reading I can get my hands on, but here are my especial favourites:
-The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
-The Phantoms on the Bookshelf by Jacques Bonnet
-Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
-Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch
-My Life With Bob by Pamela Paul
Thanks so much, Simon. All new to me apart from the Hill. Browse is an absolute treat!
This is another keeper of a review where all the books sounded so interesting. I recently read a short piece of memoir by Cathy Rentzenbrink in the anthology Common People which I liked very much.
So glad it appeals, Jennifer. All of these have much to recommend themselves to us bookish people, not least a nice warm feeling of sitting down with a friend.
I enjoyed Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan. Thanks for the other recommendations.
You’re welcome, and I’d forgotten about Bookworm so thank you for the reminder.
I’ve only read one of these (the Miller), which means I have 4 to add to my list!
I second the recommendation for The Shelf! I also just finished listening to The Library Book by Susan Orleans, which I also really enjoyed!
Ah, I read the Orleans but felt it was too long. It sounds as if the audio book is better. Definitely need to get my hands on a copy of The Shelf!
The audiobook was long, too – 14 hours! But I didn’t mind it at all on audio.
I’ve not read any of these but unsurprisingly they are all so tempting! I like your idea of the first book of the month being a re-read, I definitely feel I should re-read more.
I think any one of these would suit you! I should pick up that habit again instead of always reaching for the new.
I’ve read and loved Dear Reader and The Year of Reading Dangerously. I really want to read White Spines too. I love books about books and readers so I’m always on the hunt for new ones 🙂
Just the ticket for for those of us who spend much of our free time either reading or ogling books!
Nice! If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend https://wordsandpeace.com/2017/01/23/book-review-the-world-between-two-covers/, that she wrote after reading a book from every country
That’s great! Thank you
I loved Dear Reader and am very tempted by White Spines – I think he collects rather than reads the books he finds?
One to add to your list – Read All About It: My Year of Falling in Love with Literature by Paul Cuddihy came out in the same year as Andy Millers book. Very interesting to see how they respond to the same impetus.
Yes, it’s about collecting rather than reading. It’s Royle’s self-depracating humour that makes it a treat. And thanks so much for the recommendation. Somehow that one had passed me by.
Browse sounds really interesting. I’ll have to take a closer look at that when I next come across a copy in a bookshop. White Spines seems to have generated so much love recently – another one for the list, I suspect!
Nicholas Royle is such an engaging writer. I’m sure you’d enjoy Browse, Jacqui. Lots of bookselling lore!
I am always intrigued by books about books! I’ll have to check one of these out, thanks for the recommendations!
Oh, me, too, and you’re welcome!