Recommendations: Books About Books

Hey all, Dani here.

Obviously, with National Library Week running from April 19-25, I am in the mood to talk about books and libraries and bookstores…and so that translates into wanting to talk about books that are written about books, or about libraries, or about bookstores. So for today’s recommendations posts, I want to toss out some titles that feature these elements as a major part of the story.

A majority of these are books that I have read, but there are a few that I just know are about books and the places we find books, so I’m still going to recommend them.

Let’s start with books where bookstores play a big part.

I’ve read 3/5 of these and I’m planning on picking up the other two over the next week. There’s probably other books where characters work at bookstores, or where the bookstore is an important setting. Actually, I think Well Met by Jen DeLuca could technically qualify here because there is a decent amount of time spent at the bookshop where the main character gets a job…but I’m not including it because the primary setting is at the festival grounds. But there’s just something so nice about having books that feature so many other amazing books within their pages. It’s like books recommending other books to you. I love it.

Bookshops are a very special brand of magic, and right now I am desperately missing my trips to my local bookstores. I am already planning a trip to The Book Loft of German Village, Barnes & Noble, and Half-Price Books once businesses are able to open again. Until then I am placing online orders. But it just isn’t the same. I enjoy scanning the shelves and discovering books I didn’t know about before seeing them there in front of me. It’s wonderful. Right now I’m thinking about buying another Malarmarkus Mystery Box from the Book Loft; I already got one and they picked out some pretty cool books for me. I’ve already posted my book haul photo on my Twitter, and it will be in my monthly wrap-up as well.

Also, I have not yet reviewed any of these books, but I will be doing so fairy soon.

Okay, now let’s talk about books about books

Clearly I have a few more books to mention that are about books. A couple contemporary, a couple historical, and a couple middle grade fantastical stories. It’s pretty great, and I can definitely say that these have been wonderful and powerful reads. From The Librarian of Auschwitz which could have gone in this section or the library section, to Suggested Reading which is about censorship, and The Bromance Book Club, which is about more casual about mentioning specific book titles, all of these books highlight the wonder that is books. We watch the characters learn things, and we learn alongside them. We get to learn about events to try and restrict or remove books. We get to learn about bringing people and items from books to the real world or characters from the real world traveling to fictional worlds.

I do have some reviews up for these books, so I’ll go ahead and include those links here:  The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, Suggested Reading by Dave Connis, Story Thieves by James Riley, The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

Finally, it’s time to talk about books about libraries.

Three of the books on this section about libraries and librarians are memoir/non-fiction. Wow. I’m not going to recommend any of the textbooks I had to read in library school, though; they were pretty dry reading.  I’ve already reviewed a couple of these books, I have a couple more reviews scheduled for next week, and a couple more I’m reading this weekend so I can hopefully review them next week during National Library Week as well. And I guess since I’m recommending The Librarians and The Lost Lamp, I should probably also recommend the trilogy of “The Librarian” made for TV movies as well as the complete four season show “The Librarians.”

I have a few reviews coming soon and I have a couple that I need to re-read before I review them, but here’s the ones I’ve reviewed on my blog so far: The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith, Magus of the Library Volume 1 by Mitsu Izumi, The Librarians and the Pot of Gold by Greg Cox.

Wow, this was a fun time talking about books where books, libraries, and bookstores are a primary feature. Do you have any other books to recommend here, because I would love to hear about them. Let’s talk about books, bookstores, and libraries in the comments. Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.