More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason

Book Lust

by Nancy Pearl

The response to Nancy Pearl's surprise bestseller Book Lust was astounding: the Seattle librarian and winner of the 2004 Women's National Book Award even became the model for the now-famous Librarian Action Figure. Readers everywhere welcomed Pearl's encyclopedic but discerning filter on books worth reading, and her Rule of 50 (give a book 50 pages before deciding whether to continue; but readers over 50 must read the same number of pages as their age) became a standard MO.

Once again organized by topic, this sprightly follow-up includes an array of titles in nearly 150 eclectic categories, including Plots for Plotzing (highly unusual storylines), Animal Love (in which humans fall in love with animals), The Autobiographical Gesture (memoirs about complex lives), Child Prodigies (child characters who are called on to perform great and sometimes heroic acts), Nagging Mothers, Crying Children (true tales from the frontlines of parenting), and Libraries and Librarians. Both a valuable reference and a vastly enjoyable read, More Book Lust offers a wealth of enthusiastic, quirky reading recommendations.

Genres: Books About Books, Nonfiction, Reference, Literature, Writing, Literary Criticism, Ebooks

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2005

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I frequently remind myself of these great words of wisdom when I need to give myself permission to stop reading a book I'm not enjoying:

"The point is, reading should be pure pleasure. You haven't failed the author by not enjoying the book. Instead, the author has, at that moment in your life, failed you. That doesn't meant that in six days, or six months, or six years, or sixty years, you won't go back to the book and find that you love it. All it means is that at that particular moment in your life, you were looking for a different sort of book."

I've read Book Lust and More Book Lust twice so far. It surprised me how many books I found the second time through that I'd passed over on my first reading. It's all a matter of taste, but I've found more books from Book Lust that were to my liking than from More Book Lust.

[Dona's Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ p56

This book has a great concept and a functional execution. I would have liked to read the whole book, but unfortunately the recommendations go back several decades and a good number of the books are out of print or not available online. I kept getting frustrated when I wanted to read one of the suggestions, but I couldn't find it anywhere in digital format. So I'm putting this one aside. I'll look for something similar but more contemporary. If you have such a book that you recommend, please leave me a comment!

I have a paperback copy of More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl. All views are mine.

[Shellie (Layers of Thought) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original series review posted at Layers of Thought.

If you love books and lists, and are an eclectic reader, you will adore this series. Each recommends books which are organized into themes, with great little descriptions; all are softbound, small and easy to read.

Books reviewed:
Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason ~ by Nancy Pearl
More Book Lust: Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason
Book Crush: For Kids and Teens

Thoughts: Nancy Pearl, librarian extraordinaire, has created this series of books (with the fourth to be released in a few days - its one for travelers) which contain organized collections of book recommendations, labeled under catchy little categories. Inside the categories are enticing snippets of the books in a very readable format.

The books are small and easy to handle with a soft cover. With her “lust” of reading, Pearl shares with the reader the books she loves and those which she knows about, creating more desire and adding to your ever expanding book list. I spent hours perusing these books, enjoying her fun and interesting recommendations.

Better yet, Nancy has a variety of philosophies which she labels “Pearlisms”. One is the “rule of fifty” which I have used recently when an abandoning a book (Pride and Prejudice – sorry Jane). What I love is that she gives you permission to stop reading a book when you are not enjoying it. It’s a free “get out of guilt card”. Here is her rule:

If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit. Since that number gets smaller and smaller as we get older and older, our big reward is that when we turn 100, we can judge a book by its cover!

I loved these little books and will be purchasing every one for my personal collection. 4 stars for Book Lust and Book Crush, and 4.5 stars for More Book Lust – since it has so many books I had never heard of. Highly recommend resources for teachers, librarians, and book lovers within every genre.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Pearl knows books.

In this book you will find lists (!) of books about child prodigies, horror for sissies, civil rights and wrongs, cozies, marriage blues, time travel, parrots (yes, a list of books about parrots), wayward wives, nature writing...so much more.

She can recommend a book for almost every mood, moment, and reason, I think.

[JZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in the land of milk and honey: Nancy Pearl comes to town once a year, to share her favorites at our local performing arts center, because, of course, the library is too small.

She is a short, unassuming woman with an air of joy contained about her. She has found her right-livelihood, and revels in it. How she doesn't weigh twice what she does is a mystery to me, because I can't get nearly enough exercise to counteract all the hours I spend sitting reading my paltry little pile. Perhaps it's because books don't have commercials urging us to eat every 6 minutes.

Both her 'Book Lust' books sit on my 'rotating' shelf, so that I can grab them when I'm going to the library, book sale, book store, or yard sale, and now, to my computer. They sit right next to 'By a Woman's Hand' by Dean A. James, an excellent guide for mystery readers. These are the messiest, most-marked-up books I own.
Checks, crossing-outs, stars, arrows, and notes are all over the place. Only my favorite cookbook has more notations than these.
These are not guides to the best literature ever written, as so many lists and other books boast. No, go elsewhere for your particular slant.
These are books for voracious readers of well-written works of fiction and non-fiction. Dabblers, beware of her trap, because you will find one, then another, and another category to capture you in the written world.
How she does it is her super-power, and you can get an action figure from Archie McPhee's in Seattle to sit on the shelf to keep you aware that you have a hero in Nancy.
"Ha!" you say?
But who else but a hero would go all the places she's been to bring back the best just for you in such a compact form?
Thanks, Nancy. Be seeing you next month at WICA.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review to come, but quick notes:

This second volume is not a repeat of the first - it covers new ballparks. Unusual categories I wouldn't have thought of, like The Family of Clergy, are included. Fiction for Foodies isn't a surprise to me since so many cozies are food themed. Even geography plays its part like with Florida Fiction, Japan, Tibet, Egypt, etc. I was especially delighted to see sections like Fractured Fairy Tales, Maiden Voyages and Ms. Mystery. I've never heard of "Dick Lit" but thanks to this book, I now have a new genre to name.

As always Nancy Pearl shies away from darker fiction from the most part, so you won't find much in the way of horror, thriller or darker mysteries here - but she definitely gives an exhaustive list of valuable resources and possibilities to open your mind and explore.

Used more as a reference guide and list more than you'd sit and read it like a novel, it's a worthy book to keep revisiting.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very, very fun way to find the next good book. I really enjoyed all the little personal notes she had throughout the book and I think she did a great job telling a little about the books. Nancy also had a nice selection of different genres and "Authors Too Good To Miss". My husband and I laughed over her Dick Lit, aka Lad Lit section. We've never heard of it and are wondering when Dick Flicks, aka Lad Flicks are going to become the rage for men in movies.
I hope one day to add this book and her first volume Book Lust to my personal library. There are too many books I want to read from her list to just write the titles down.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good and interesting, with lots of suggestions, still (as in book one) a bit out-fashioned and some categories wouldn't have been necessary for me, but okay: no need to argue about tastes...

[Bookslut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love her. It makes me so happy to read whatever she writes about books. I worried, at the outset, that this was going to be greatly overshadowed by Travel Lust. The organization of that book is perfect and elegant (by place, of course). She gets in her own way here a little, by trying to come up with cutesy categories to file her recommendations under. The opening of the book falls particularly flat, because the opening category is uninspiring, and doesn't feel like a proper opener, and it made me wonder if the whole book was going to feel forced and awkward. But I was soon swept away by the enthusiasm and breadth of suggestions she brings to the table, and was able to forgive what I consider a misstep in structuring the book. It is fun, fun, fun to hear about and consider so many titles that a big reader has vetted, and I gleefully added a billion of them to my list.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Book Lust #2 subsequent to studying several tomes of literary reviews of serious contemporary literature of all genres and her first "Book Lust". Pearl's treatment is lighter than what I had been reading but for the most part useful. As a librarian, she has profound experience with books of a wide range of subjects and I recommend it to fellow bibliophiles.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like books like this, but I found myself so bored with this one.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

And now I have a longer list of book to read.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book of December. I wanted something easy, but also something that would distract me during a much-too-long sit in a hospital waiting room while Matt was in surgery. This was just the book. What booklover wouldn't want to spend a stressful day diving into 300 pages of (themed!) book recs??

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not at all comprehensive and it can be downright frustrating when “perfect” books are left out of the various sections. But it’s a way to find new books, and new authors also, and can bring up good memories of books already read. And these Book Lust books are an enjoyable read - I read them cover to cover. Would recommend making a detailed list of books to read as read about them, which is something I didn’t do. Different catagories lists with different books than the first Book Lust book. Shows how easily there can be multiple Book Lust books in the future.

[Loco4Libros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darn, now I have 33 more books to add to my NEED TO READ book list! You are evil Nancy Pearl.

[Gabrielle]

As a fan of Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust, I decided to read the sequel to her first book, More Book Lust. Published in 2005 by Sasquatch Books, More Book Lust is on the shorter side for a finding aid book at 240 pages. However, More Book Lust still packs a punch as Pearl is able to succinctly write about a thousand new books. Pearl is unique with the way she categorizes her books, from sections like “And the Award for Best Title Goes To…” to “Gallivanting in the Graveyard.” Pearl organizes her books by these categories she creates, rather than alphabetizing them by author or title. I enjoyed this choice because it makes the book a very easy tool to use for readers’ advisory, as I can flip to any applicable section quickly. I was also able to read about my favorite genres first, like fantasy and travel, and then could read other sections that I was less familiar with or read less often.
Pearl is very creative in the way she classifies her books, and I appreciated the very specific groups she created, like books that take place in the Midwest or books where the author plays a trick on the reader. This book would be perfect for readers who want quick recommendations from short, important details from the book—no spoilers here! This book is also perfect for readers who would like to be exposed to a broad number of genres and book recommendations in the shortest page count. Pearl has compressed and perfected the art of book-talking in More Book Lust, as even her shortest descriptions piqued my interest.
Although Pearl’s synopses are brief, I found myself constantly switching from my book to Goodreads to log the new books I was learning about. Pearl includes so many titles in a relatively short number of pages through the categories she creates. For example, in her category entitled “Guilt-Inducing Books,” Pearl gives a brief summary at the beginning about what these books are about, instead of giving a description about every book mentioned. This is how Pearl can mention so many books without making More Book Lust very long. While the introduction at the beginning sufficed, I would have preferred to have a description of each of the books to learn the unique offerings of each one. It is important to note, however, that not every chapter is like this. Usually, she does give sentence to paragraph length descriptions. Another unique aspect of More Book Lust is that Pearl has also compiled books that are meant to be read together. This doesn’t mean she’s recommending series—while there are options for books with sequels, Pearl has found books that pair well together by having similar subjects, storylines, or writing. I thought this was not only a testament to Pearl’s expertise, but also another great readers’ advisory tool from this book. If a reader likes one book from the list, Pearl has provided multiple different options that would be very similar reads.
This book confirmed one of my main goals: to expand my reading list and read as much as I can. One of my favorite things I learned from this book is written in the introduction. Pearl describes the “rule of fifty,” which is giving a book fifty pages until you decide if you want to keep reading it. Life is too short, and there are so many books to read in the world. Sometimes I’ll force myself to read a book I do not enjoy, and it completely stops my love for reading. By taking this rule to heart, I believe I can expand my personal library.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is a little embarrassing, haha! However, it was effective at capturing my attention at the bookstore. When I picked it up and flipped through the pages I was intrigued by her creative book categories such as; Gallivanting in the Graveyard, Tickle Your Funny Bone, Alphabet Soup, and Dewey Deconstructed.

There were some books in there that I would never read in a million years, but I did add 282 books to my to-read list, so that's good. (or not good ha!) Most of the books when I looked them up in goodreads had high ratings so it appeared that she could be counted on for suggesting well-written books.

This book was written in an interesting way, it definitely wasn't just a boring list of books. I do recommend it. In fact I just got a text indicating that the previous book, "Book Lust", has been delivered, so I'm off to discover more books. See you in bookland. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the word book was used 14 times in this review. I'm not sure how to correct that without using the word tome, but that would just sound stuffy, so I'm signing off. :)

This fulfilled the requirement "a book based entirely on its cover" for the 2015 Ultimate Reading Challenge by popsugar.

Edited to Add: I need to add one thing. I thought it seemed like there was a lack of good Christian books. I am fine with books that aren't Christian as long as they're not full of sex, violence, and cussing, but it seems like her tastes definitely ran in a direction away from Christian though most of the books seemed to be tasteful. I did think that she would mention Jan Karon in her previous book but now that I've checked the index and scanned through it I cannot find anything about her. Given the sheer numbers of Jan Karon's books that have sold (without a movie to initiate sales) there can be no denying her excellent writing abilities. I can't help but feel like she was omitted because of the author's preference toward non-christian books, but this is just speculation. I obviously still found plenty of books that looked promising though, but I thought I'd give a heads up for those who prefer to read mostly just Christian books.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

All my latest additions to my "to read" list here are coming out of this book - there's lots of interesting mysteries recommended. It's sometimes a bit hit & miss - I certainly wouldn't read everything that the author recommends, but it's great to read through and note down books that sounds interesting. Plus, I love the way it's organised - alphabetical lists like, "Literary Lives", "I am Woman, Hear Me Roar" and "Guilt-Inducing Books". It's also wonderfully eclectic, which ensures that there should be recommendations within that would appeal to everyone.

[Mycala · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how she does it, but Nancy Pearl's lists of books make me want to live next door to her and invite her for tea and a chat about the latest read. She also inspires me to somehow text her and say, "Oh hang on, what about this one?"

I like the way she categorizes things without being dry. She tells little stories or adds little bits of information... just enough to inspire me to put stuff on hold at the library and then exclaim, "Wait a minute, how did I get 20 books on my hold list already!?"

I see there's only one left in the series and then what? Get to reading, Nancy! ;-)

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love adding to my to-read list. I will definitely refer to this one often.

[Diane Nagatomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book--and probably the credit card company has enjoyed it, too! Compelled to read all the books Nancy Pearl recommends! (Also ordered her other lusty books!)

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 STARS

[Charli Fulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second in Nancy Pearl’s series recommends books in different types of categories — for example, some books are categorized by subjects such as books set in Italy or books on fishing, while others are categorized by features such as outstanding first novels published by an author. So some recommendations are more detailed thank others. Even so, I found quite a few books to add to my future reads, including some that are already on my shelves.

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier - Ann Packer
Blackwater - Kerstin Ekman
My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell
Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast - Bill Richardson
From Sea to Shining Sea - Alexander Them
True Grit - Charles Portis
Coal: A Human History - Barbara Freese
So Many Books, So Little Time - Sara Nelson
How Proust Can Change Your Life - Alain de Botton
Carol Shields
Mark Kurlansky
Oliver Sacks
The Beulah Quintet - Mary Lee Settle
Prisons
Beulah Land
Know Nothing
The Scapegoat
The Killing Ground

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl is a book tailor-made for readers who are easily swayed by another reader's powers of suggestion, be these subtle, aggressive, or superfluous, propelling them to check recommended titles on Thriftbooks, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace.

Halfway through the book, I realized I epitomized Pearl's targeted reader, having proceeded with pencil in hand, intending only to check the endorsed books I'd already read, but ended up placing asterisks, and underlining titles I intended to read. And though miffed at reading a book's sequel first, that sentiment has now been replaced by a lusty list of books to seek out. Beginning with Book Lust, of course.

* Last April I gradually began selling some of my books, my windfall from The San Francisco/Capitol Bookstore online (Shopee). Some titles mentioned here gave me discerning pause, and re-evaluate the selection process. Hoping this doesn't re-awaken the pack rat in me.

[SKP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually skimmed this book rather than reading it cover to cover, but then I tend to do that with any book that is basically a bibliography. I actually have read many of the titles mentioned, but since this was published 18 years ago, it has really become quite dated. The themes are kind of random, but I could name some newer books to go into a lot of the categories she uses that are really great books. But I do like my books that are about books, so this series is worth looking at for me.

[Kali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flipped through this one after checking out the first Book Lust... and found it to be much of the same. Which means I had the same problems with this book that I did with the previous one - not enough categories of interest to me in the first place, and nothing new or interesting in the categories I DID have an interest in.

I did give this one an extra star, though, because I did add ONE book from it to my "To Read" list.

[Judy Trenkle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Nancy Pearl and agree with her assessment of most of the books I have read.
However, the formatting and editing errors in this book are atrocious.
Never should have been released this way.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arrgh! These books are killing my TBR list! More please!

[SeaShore · Rating 5 out of 5]

continuous reference.

[PuniPoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really like this kind of books😎