20 Bookish Books for Your TBR
And five for mine
I recently finished reading Erasure by Percival Everett, and it reminded me how much I enjoy books about books, publishing, and the literary world. I thought that would make for a fun book list, so that's what I'm sharing today. Here are 15 titles I've read and enjoyed and five more that I'm excited to read. Let's get to it!
In the 1940s, writer Helen Hanff lived in New York City, and she was looking for a hard-to-find book. She reached out to a used bookseller in London, and the two became pen pals, writing letters for 20 years. 84, Charing Cross Road is a collection of those letters from one book lover to another. It's a sweet, charming book perfect for any bibliophile, especially if they’re like me and enjoy stories set in NYC and London.
Maggie Banks heads to a small town called Bell River to take over running her best friend's family bookstore so she can take some leave. Maggie assumes the bookstore will be like any other, but thanks to the town's literary society and the store's picky landlord, they're limited on what they can sell. Bell River was home to a beloved local author who penned many classics, so the store only sells classic literature. Maggie begins to bend the rules to sneak popular bestsellers and more diverse titles to her customers and soon starts hosting underground author events. The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks is a lighthearted and fun read that celebrates the power of books to connect a community. Give this one a chance the next time you need a feel-good story.
Takako is 25, and her life is at a standstill. Her boyfriend has left her for another woman, a coworker, making her job impossible. She needs a new start and heads to Tokyo to live with her uncle. He runs a used bookstore and offers to let Takako live rent-free in a room above the store if she helps him run it. Takako says yes, even though she doesn't really care about books. That soon changes when she gets to know some of the shop's enthusiastic customers and starts picking up books for herself.
Monk is a distinguished Black man who's the author of wordy, deep fiction that's not very popular. His last book was rejected, so he's wondering what his next move should be when he learns he'll have to relocate to care for his ailing mother. No matter where he goes, Monk can’t stop hearing about the national bestseller, We's Lives in Da Ghetto, which he believes is exploitative and poorly written. In frustration, Monk writes a parody of the book and sends it to his agent, urging him to submit it for publication as if it's serious fiction. As you can imagine, things don't go according to plan. I really enjoyed this gem from 2001.
Hell of a Book is an innovative and exciting story that's hard to summarize. The novel follows an unnamed Black author on a book tour. He drinks too much and can't tell reality from fiction sometimes, so he’s unsure what’s happening when he starts seeing The Kid, a maybe-ghost that looks like a Black boy who was just shot by the police. The stories of the author and The Kid are intertwined with Soot, a Black boy from the rural South. Jason Mott uses magical realism to tell a powerful story about violence, memory, and what stories must be told. I don’t always love magical realism, but Mott used it so well that it earned him a National Book Award.
"Don't judge a book by its cover" is a well-known cliche, yet I always ignore it. I love beautiful book covers and have found some great reads thanks to good cover art. If you're interested in what goes into cover design, you'll love The Look of the Book. It's full of bookish eye candy and fascinating info about design.
My Ideal Bookshelf is a gorgeous book full of Jane Mount's bright and bold illustrations. It contains the ideal bookshelves of people such as Nancy Pearl, Dave Eggers, Malcolm Gladwell, Judd Apatow, and many more. The book came out in 2012, so I would love an updated version.
It's hard to imagine a time when Stephen King wasn't the bestselling author he is today. His first novel, Carrie, was rejected repeatedly before finally being published in 1974. In On Writing, King tells the story of his life and writing career, offering advice along the way. This remains the only book I've read by King, so you certainly don't have to be a fan of his vast catalog to love this one. On Writing is a nonfiction classic.
Jacob Bonner is a once-celebrated author whose career is floundering. He's teaching in an unimpressive MFA program when he encounters Evan, a student who tells Jacob the plot of the book he's writing. Evan is convinced it'll be a massive hit, and Jacob is, too, but the book never comes out. Jacob soon realizes why: Evan died before he finished it. Jacob wants to be a famous writer again, so he sees no harm in taking Evan's plot and making it his own. Once he does, he gets an ominous message telling him he's a thief. The messages keep coming, and Jacob doesn't know how anyone knows he's a fraud. The Plot is a total page-turner and a well-written mystery with a shocking conclusion. Try The Plot to cure your next reading slump.
Reading Art is the perfect book to keep on your nightstand or end table to flip through whenever you need some inspiration or beauty. It covers a lot of periods and artists, so I think this would be an excellent gift for a book-loving friend who appreciates art.
What happens when you decide to read every book on a random library shelf? Let Phyllis Rose tell you because that's exactly what she did. In The Shelf, Rose recaps her experiment and shares the books she read. Some I knew, and many I didn't, which made for a fun reading experience. I loved learning what Rose thought of the books and how her project impacted her literary opinions. I haven't heard anyone else talking about this book, but I think it's an absolute delight.
In the early 1990s, Emily (or Em) was a young woman new to New York City who was working as an assistant for a literary agent. She meets another Emily around her age, and though their personalities are wildly different, the two become friends. Emily also befriended Lucy, a middle-aged novelist raising a daughter alone. When the novel flashes forward to 2004, Emily is a thriving book editor. Lucy has passed away, but Emily wants to publish her last novel, believing that Lucy was a brilliant writer. The other Emily reaches out to Em, wanting to reconnect, and suddenly, Em is faced with the past she thought was over. Vintage Contemporaries is a lovely tale of female friendship and shows how one's dedication to writing and reading can shape a life and legacy.
Do you want to know what Donna Tartt likes to read? Would you like to hear what book inspires Louise Erdrich? If you're literarily nosy, you'll love The Writer's Library, a collection where beloved authors share the stories that mean the most to them. Any writer or devoted reader will find a lot of inspiration here.
Andy Miller is like many readers who say, "I'll read that classic someday. I'll get to Joyce or Dickens or Woolf soon." Of course, those same readers (including me) never actually read the books they say they want to read, and that's okay. But it ate at Miller, so he decided to do something about it. When he found a copy of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, he took it home and decided this book would be the start of his year of reading, 12 months devoted to reading the books he'd been putting off. The Year of Reading Dangerously is a funny memoir about the joys and pains of the classics and why the books we're told we should read might not always be the books for us.
June is a struggling writer who's friends with Athena, another writer whose career is skyrocketing. When the two women are celebrating, Athena chokes and dies, leaving behind an unpublished manuscript. June takes it and passes it off as her own work. It isn't that simple, though, and June becomes a controversial figure whose story is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Yellowface is a satirical literary novel that reads like a thriller. It would make for a great book club selection.
In case 15 titles weren’t enough, here are five more bookish books I’m excited to read.
Thanks to NoveList for the summaries.
When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O’Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier. As a lifelong O’Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O’Hara’s past, but also her father’s, and her own. In reckoning with her unique heritage, as well as providing new insights into the life of one of our most important poets, Calhoun offers a brave and hopeful meditation on parents and children, artistic ambition, and the complexities of what we leave behind.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic shares 100 personal, thought-provoking essays on the life-changing works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry she most recommends for the establishment of well-read world citizenship, from The Federalist Papers to the Harry Potter novels.
In this highly personal look at the craft of writing, an internationally best-selling author and famously reclusive writer shares his own creative process as well as his thoughts on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.
In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Funny, frank, and rigorous, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain ultimately shows how great fiction can change a person's life and become a benchmark of one's moral and ethical beliefs.
Drawing on Ovid's myth of Echo and Narcissus to explore the distinction between writing and translating, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author talks broadly about writing, desire, and freedom as she reflects on her emerging identity as a translator.
Have you read any of these books? What bookish books have you enjoyed the most? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
Oh my goodness, SO MANY good ones here!! I just requested The Shelf from the library thanks to your recommendation :-) A favorite of mine is Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence!
Great list - and I have an addition! The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. It’s such a heartfelt and touching story.