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Bookish: A Love Letter to Reading
Brought to you by Penguin.
A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.
From well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures Bookish brims with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations. This is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookshops big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.
‘A bookworm’s delight’ Sara Collins
‘Funny, warm and charming’ Marian Keyes
‘Like butter on perfect’ Caitlin Moran
Lucy Mangan 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.
From well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures Bookish brims with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations. This is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookshops big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.
‘A bookworm’s delight’ Sara Collins
‘Funny, warm and charming’ Marian Keyes
‘Like butter on perfect’ Caitlin Moran
Lucy Mangan 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Audible Audio
First published March 13, 2025
About the author
Lucy Mangan
20 books177 followersLucy Mangan (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for The Guardian. Her writing style is both feminist and humorous.
Mangan grew up in Catford, south east London, but both her parents were originally from Lancashire. She studied English at Cambridge University and trained to be a solicitor. After qualifying as a solicitor, she began to work instead in a bookshop and then, in 2003, found a work experience placement at The Guardian.
She continues to work at The Guardian writing a regular column and TV reviews plus occasional features. Her book My Family and other Disasters (2009) is a collection of her newspaper columns. She has also written books about her childhood and her wedding.
Mangan also has a regular column for Stylist magazine and has been a judge for the Booktrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
Mangan grew up in Catford, south east London, but both her parents were originally from Lancashire. She studied English at Cambridge University and trained to be a solicitor. After qualifying as a solicitor, she began to work instead in a bookshop and then, in 2003, found a work experience placement at The Guardian.
She continues to work at The Guardian writing a regular column and TV reviews plus occasional features. Her book My Family and other Disasters (2009) is a collection of her newspaper columns. She has also written books about her childhood and her wedding.
Mangan also has a regular column for Stylist magazine and has been a judge for the Booktrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
May 13, 2025
If you love books, and reading about books, and want to laugh all the way through a book, and get lots of ideas for reading, and having a lot of old ideas challenged, then this book is for you. Lucy Mangan is a treasure.
Her description of her honeymoon in Hay-on- Wye was a classic. "Visiting bookshops all morning, lunch, back to the cottage to read all afternoon, dinner, back to read at night. And yes, there was sex too."
Her description of her honeymoon in Hay-on- Wye was a classic. "Visiting bookshops all morning, lunch, back to the cottage to read all afternoon, dinner, back to read at night. And yes, there was sex too."
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June 13, 2026Yeah, sigh. Yeaah, sigh, sigh...but
Reader, I laughed aloud while reading this. I laughed in a chair, I laughed while sitting at the dinner table, I laughed on the train. Simple happy laughter. Lucy Mangan tells a lot of funny stories about herself, ok you have to be a pretty keen reader to enjoy her joking about reading everywhere. She probably will not be filling up theaters to hear her joke about in the near future but she is perfect for a Goodreads audience.
Go on, read her, we'll have fun.
I had read some of articles in the newspaper many years ago, comic domestic pieces turning on the different cultural backgrounds of her and her then boyfriend (now husband). I had pegged her as a study capable woman from the north-west of England. It turns out that her parents are from the North-west, she has a huge need for comfort and security, and that she us from Catford. Goodness, I am a year older than her and grew up just a little to the west from her neck of the woods. Our paths might have overlapped in Peckham, or Sydenham, or Forest Hill. We are both readers, we shared reading experiences like moving out from children's books into genre fiction. However as I read, and the more that I read, the more that she felt quite alien to me as a reader.
Her book progresses chronologically from when she is circa fourteen to having passed fifty, covering her schooling, getting a degree in English literature at Cambridge, doing temporary work, training to become a solicitor, hating it, resigning straight after qualifying and getting a job in a bookshop, journalusm, marriage, having a baby, obtaining a room of one's own, and so on. As she progresses she mentions (some of) the books that she came across. Some just get a mention, others a comment, a few a paragraph, even fewer a more extensive discussion, the longest passages I think are on Lee Child's Jack Reacher books and the little house on the prairie series. At the end, after the text come extra book recommendations for each chapter.
Still, as I read further her reading seemed odd to me, a feeling of oddness which eventually dominated my reading experience. According to this book she reads almost no books in translation, no modernists, so obviously no post-modernists, nothing of Global English; she seems to stick to writers from England, Ireland, and the USA, the only exception is Atwood's the Handmaid's tale. Eventually towards the end she mentions preferring women writers and cites some grotesque examples of men writing women badly- which would have been more impressive, in my view, if she had noticed them for herself rather than cribbed them off Twitter. Still then one wonders about the anglophone women authors that she doesn't mention: no Barbara Pym, no Doris Lessing, no Angela Carter, no Iris Murdoch, no Anita Brookner, no Edna O'Brien, equally no Catherine Cookson or Rosamund Pilcher either. On the other hand she has read all of Dan Brown, even while thinking that his prose could be used as a murder weapon in Cludo.
Throughout her book she talks a good game of it being good that people read what they want to read and write what they want to write, but as I read I suspected that maybe she has a bit of a chip on her shoulder when it comes to reading and that she prefers to avoid books that might challenge her, so obviously nothing in translation or from global English because it might include the names of cities thay she does not recognise (according to this book the only foreign places that she has visited are New York and Hay on Wye which is just in Wales, though not I think in the wild part. Admittedly for most of her life she didn't have a passport
But then she wrote Books bring us joy and comfort all our lives. It's possible the former dominates in childhood (or at least a happy childhood) and the latter probably comes into ascendance as adulthood wears on. Escapism is fun as a child. In adulthood it becomes a frequent necessity. Plus we have so many good reads to go back to, the older we get- our comfort-reading options simply become too good to ignore. (pp279-280). At last I understood: she is a comfort reader and avoids anything that might make her feel uncomfortable; I wouldn't like to pass judgement on any bodies childhood, particularly not my own, but using her categories I'd say I read for comfort as a child, as an adult I largely read for joy - the joy of discovery, the joy of a different voice, of a different way of saying something old.
She writes of reading a Rosemary Sutcliffe novel in the future, but it's Knight's Fee, by all the hair of the nine muses, who reads that as their first Sutcliffe you'd start with the eagle of the ninth! That is just weird. Holidays spent strip searching second hand books shops, reading while breast feeding, reading in your work lunch break on the toilet, that all seems normal in comparison.
Reader, I laughed aloud while reading this. I laughed in a chair, I laughed while sitting at the dinner table, I laughed on the train. Simple happy laughter. Lucy Mangan tells a lot of funny stories about herself, ok you have to be a pretty keen reader to enjoy her joking about reading everywhere. She probably will not be filling up theaters to hear her joke about in the near future but she is perfect for a Goodreads audience.
Go on, read her, we'll have fun.
I had read some of articles in the newspaper many years ago, comic domestic pieces turning on the different cultural backgrounds of her and her then boyfriend (now husband). I had pegged her as a study capable woman from the north-west of England. It turns out that her parents are from the North-west, she has a huge need for comfort and security, and that she us from Catford. Goodness, I am a year older than her and grew up just a little to the west from her neck of the woods. Our paths might have overlapped in Peckham, or Sydenham, or Forest Hill. We are both readers, we shared reading experiences like moving out from children's books into genre fiction. However as I read, and the more that I read, the more that she felt quite alien to me as a reader.
Her book progresses chronologically from when she is circa fourteen to having passed fifty, covering her schooling, getting a degree in English literature at Cambridge, doing temporary work, training to become a solicitor, hating it, resigning straight after qualifying and getting a job in a bookshop, journalusm, marriage, having a baby, obtaining a room of one's own, and so on. As she progresses she mentions (some of) the books that she came across. Some just get a mention, others a comment, a few a paragraph, even fewer a more extensive discussion, the longest passages I think are on Lee Child's Jack Reacher books and the little house on the prairie series. At the end, after the text come extra book recommendations for each chapter.
Still, as I read further her reading seemed odd to me, a feeling of oddness which eventually dominated my reading experience. According to this book she reads almost no books in translation, no modernists, so obviously no post-modernists, nothing of Global English; she seems to stick to writers from England, Ireland, and the USA, the only exception is Atwood's the Handmaid's tale. Eventually towards the end she mentions preferring women writers and cites some grotesque examples of men writing women badly- which would have been more impressive, in my view, if she had noticed them for herself rather than cribbed them off Twitter. Still then one wonders about the anglophone women authors that she doesn't mention: no Barbara Pym, no Doris Lessing, no Angela Carter, no Iris Murdoch, no Anita Brookner, no Edna O'Brien, equally no Catherine Cookson or Rosamund Pilcher either. On the other hand she has read all of Dan Brown, even while thinking that his prose could be used as a murder weapon in Cludo.
Throughout her book she talks a good game of it being good that people read what they want to read and write what they want to write, but as I read I suspected that maybe she has a bit of a chip on her shoulder when it comes to reading and that she prefers to avoid books that might challenge her, so obviously nothing in translation or from global English because it might include the names of cities thay she does not recognise (according to this book the only foreign places that she has visited are New York and Hay on Wye which is just in Wales, though not I think in the wild part. Admittedly for most of her life she didn't have a passport
But then she wrote Books bring us joy and comfort all our lives. It's possible the former dominates in childhood (or at least a happy childhood) and the latter probably comes into ascendance as adulthood wears on. Escapism is fun as a child. In adulthood it becomes a frequent necessity. Plus we have so many good reads to go back to, the older we get- our comfort-reading options simply become too good to ignore. (pp279-280). At last I understood: she is a comfort reader and avoids anything that might make her feel uncomfortable; I wouldn't like to pass judgement on any bodies childhood, particularly not my own, but using her categories I'd say I read for comfort as a child, as an adult I largely read for joy - the joy of discovery, the joy of a different voice, of a different way of saying something old.
She writes of reading a Rosemary Sutcliffe novel in the future, but it's Knight's Fee, by all the hair of the nine muses, who reads that as their first Sutcliffe you'd start with the eagle of the ninth! That is just weird. Holidays spent strip searching second hand books shops, reading while breast feeding, reading in your work lunch break on the toilet, that all seems normal in comparison.
September 5, 2025
Although I’m still looking forward to reading Mangan’s earlier ‘Bookworm‘ (not least because it’s about her childhood reading), this sequel, despite its best intentions, eventually becomes irritating.
Whether I’m not convinced by the light, cosy style adopted or just the bewildering amount of authors and volumes discussed, but more certainly feels like less here. But I do agree that books, reading, looking at my bookshelves (and others, whether they live in homes or libraries) is to feel completely at one with the world and oneself. There’s absolutely nothing comparable to this joy.
And for this alone, ‘Bookish’ is worthy of your attention.
Whether I’m not convinced by the light, cosy style adopted or just the bewildering amount of authors and volumes discussed, but more certainly feels like less here. But I do agree that books, reading, looking at my bookshelves (and others, whether they live in homes or libraries) is to feel completely at one with the world and oneself. There’s absolutely nothing comparable to this joy.
And for this alone, ‘Bookish’ is worthy of your attention.
June 6, 2026
Marvellous!
February 2, 2026
Which reader can’t recognize themselves in this book? Reading and thinking about books dominates my life. Lucy, like I, loves having books waiting for her on her shelves. So many people have asked me why I buy so many books when I have so many sitting there unread- cause that way I know where they are when I’m ready to read them. It’s a comfort that some might call an addiction.
Thanks, Lucy, for adding so many more books to my TBR as well as introducing me to some exquisite sounding children’s books.
Published: 2025
Thanks, Lucy, for adding so many more books to my TBR as well as introducing me to some exquisite sounding children’s books.
Published: 2025
March 18, 2025
I have yet to read Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, although I have been meaning to read it ever since it came out, but you know how it is. This one came up on Netgalley so I immediately requested it and was delighted to be approved for an ARC.
This follows on from Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, so whilst that one is about childhood reading, this one takes us through teen reading, set texts for Uni, and the books and book collecting that she has enjoyed throughout her life.
She comes across as my people; I haven't read a lot of what she read, I didn't even read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4; by the time everyone else was reading that, I had discovered P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, but I could completely relate to her feelings for books and for reading, and the comfort and joy she gets from it. (I was also rather pleased to have my unpopular opinion about Wuthering Heights validated).
Reading her thoughts on Norah Lofts, an author I have been meaning to read for ages, had me searching the Backlisted podcast that she did about The Town House, and then, hearing John and Andy so enthusiastic about the book sent me to the library, so now I am reading that one as well, and loving it. I'm now looking forward to getting to many of the other books written about here, (Adrian Mole - better late than never). I will also be buying this one when it comes out, and Bookworm has moved to the top of the TBR pile.
This follows on from Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, so whilst that one is about childhood reading, this one takes us through teen reading, set texts for Uni, and the books and book collecting that she has enjoyed throughout her life.
She comes across as my people; I haven't read a lot of what she read, I didn't even read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4; by the time everyone else was reading that, I had discovered P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, but I could completely relate to her feelings for books and for reading, and the comfort and joy she gets from it. (I was also rather pleased to have my unpopular opinion about Wuthering Heights validated).
Reading her thoughts on Norah Lofts, an author I have been meaning to read for ages, had me searching the Backlisted podcast that she did about The Town House, and then, hearing John and Andy so enthusiastic about the book sent me to the library, so now I am reading that one as well, and loving it. I'm now looking forward to getting to many of the other books written about here, (Adrian Mole - better late than never). I will also be buying this one when it comes out, and Bookworm has moved to the top of the TBR pile.
September 5, 2025
I can't remember what prompted me to add this to my TBR, it could have been a Guardian review.
I rarely, if ever, read books about books or even less so about someone's love of books, due to being already a convert, but I was in the mood for a lighter, non-fiction book.
I'm fascinated by people who are passionate about things; of course, sharing a passion for books has made the reading experience even more pleasant.
I have several things in common with Mangan - a lifelong love of reading and a preference for female writers. I definitely don't have an obsession with owning the books (she's got over 10,000 volumes!!!), although seeing books on shelves makes me happy - but I greatly dislike cleaning and dusting, so I'm never going to acquire that many books. These days, I love new books and I can't lie :-) ; the yellowed, old ones don't appeal in the least.
Reading is a solitary activity; therefore, most bookworms are by nature introverts. Mangan is very much an introvert, preferring books to human interaction. Unlike her, I'm very extroverted, an open book (pun intended), who hates being ignored. But I also enjoy my own company, especially when I'm spoiled for reading material and music.
Mangan has a passion for children's books. We diverge, back in my day, there weren't many kids' books available, if you don't count the old fairy tales. The many kids' books published these days are absolutely incredible. The art alone is astounding.
Despite being a book critic, Mangan is not a snob, if anything she loves genre literature and reads across most genres. I consider myself a former book snob, although I get ranty about what I dislike.
I would have loved a list of the titles mentioned in this book. I'll have to look it up.
Anyway, this was very enjoyable, a worthy addition to your TBR if it's not there already.
I rarely, if ever, read books about books or even less so about someone's love of books, due to being already a convert, but I was in the mood for a lighter, non-fiction book.
I'm fascinated by people who are passionate about things; of course, sharing a passion for books has made the reading experience even more pleasant.
I have several things in common with Mangan - a lifelong love of reading and a preference for female writers. I definitely don't have an obsession with owning the books (she's got over 10,000 volumes!!!), although seeing books on shelves makes me happy - but I greatly dislike cleaning and dusting, so I'm never going to acquire that many books. These days, I love new books and I can't lie :-) ; the yellowed, old ones don't appeal in the least.
Reading is a solitary activity; therefore, most bookworms are by nature introverts. Mangan is very much an introvert, preferring books to human interaction. Unlike her, I'm very extroverted, an open book (pun intended), who hates being ignored. But I also enjoy my own company, especially when I'm spoiled for reading material and music.
Mangan has a passion for children's books. We diverge, back in my day, there weren't many kids' books available, if you don't count the old fairy tales. The many kids' books published these days are absolutely incredible. The art alone is astounding.
Despite being a book critic, Mangan is not a snob, if anything she loves genre literature and reads across most genres. I consider myself a former book snob, although I get ranty about what I dislike.
I would have loved a list of the titles mentioned in this book. I'll have to look it up.
Anyway, this was very enjoyable, a worthy addition to your TBR if it's not there already.
April 21, 2025
This picks up where Bookworm left off and casually traces Mangan's life story by way of her reading habits and book collecting. As a teenager and Cambridge University student, she encountered some seminal books through the curriculum (Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Canterbury Tales, The Color Purple) but others on her own (the works of Jane Austen and Anne Brontë - as opposed to her more famous sisters). During her brief time working at a Waterstone's chain bookstore, she discovered a lot of children's and YA fiction (YA being a relatively new phenomenon then) that she'd missed out on at the time. I loved that she highlights E.L. Konigsburg, for instance.
The book is breezy and tends to minimize the difficulty of life changes. However, it is clear that books have been important for preserving the author's mental health. Again and again, she insists that it was reading that kept her sane: during her hated and short-lived law career, when she developed postnatal depression following the birth of her son, during Covid lockdowns, and after the death of her father.
Mangan is funny and opinionated, and defends the right to read whatever you want - no such thing as guilty pleasures; no genres one should snootily dismiss. So even when her tastes don't align with mine (bonkbusters, medieval settings, crime, romance; enthusiasm for authors I can never see myself reading, like Norah Lofts or Edward Rutherfurd), I found this entertaining. She's very much a kindred spirit. Her honeymoon was to Hay-on-Wye, one of my favourite repeat holiday destinations (and she has a second home in Norfolk partly because she and her husband went there so often and spent most of their time secondhand book shopping. All of those purchases fill her 10,000-volume library, which is housed on custom-made, green-painted shelves in a stand-alone room at the bottom of her garden. Luckily, she's aware of her privilege and isn't obnoxious about it).
I most felt kinship with her over acquiring books at a much faster rate than one reads them (e.g. she has a whole category of purchases that she refers to as "Things I Feel I Might Like and Will Get to In the Fullness of Time, But Certainly Not Within What Normal People Would Call a Reasonable Period"). However, it doesn't bother her too much, because she knows books are patient, and the cycle will never end: "there are always more books out there waiting to be discovered, fitting you perfectly, fulfilling a need you may not even know yet that you have." Certainly recommended if you like books about books.
[One minor anachronism: on pp. 212-13 she jokes about Anthony Trollope's assiduous writing habits and mentions a typewriter, but I don't think there is any evidence that he used one, even though he was alive 14 years after its invention. As far as I know, he was always a paper-and-ink writer.]
The book is breezy and tends to minimize the difficulty of life changes. However, it is clear that books have been important for preserving the author's mental health. Again and again, she insists that it was reading that kept her sane: during her hated and short-lived law career, when she developed postnatal depression following the birth of her son, during Covid lockdowns, and after the death of her father.
Mangan is funny and opinionated, and defends the right to read whatever you want - no such thing as guilty pleasures; no genres one should snootily dismiss. So even when her tastes don't align with mine (bonkbusters, medieval settings, crime, romance; enthusiasm for authors I can never see myself reading, like Norah Lofts or Edward Rutherfurd), I found this entertaining. She's very much a kindred spirit. Her honeymoon was to Hay-on-Wye, one of my favourite repeat holiday destinations (and she has a second home in Norfolk partly because she and her husband went there so often and spent most of their time secondhand book shopping. All of those purchases fill her 10,000-volume library, which is housed on custom-made, green-painted shelves in a stand-alone room at the bottom of her garden. Luckily, she's aware of her privilege and isn't obnoxious about it).
I most felt kinship with her over acquiring books at a much faster rate than one reads them (e.g. she has a whole category of purchases that she refers to as "Things I Feel I Might Like and Will Get to In the Fullness of Time, But Certainly Not Within What Normal People Would Call a Reasonable Period"). However, it doesn't bother her too much, because she knows books are patient, and the cycle will never end: "there are always more books out there waiting to be discovered, fitting you perfectly, fulfilling a need you may not even know yet that you have." Certainly recommended if you like books about books.
[One minor anachronism: on pp. 212-13 she jokes about Anthony Trollope's assiduous writing habits and mentions a typewriter, but I don't think there is any evidence that he used one, even though he was alive 14 years after its invention. As far as I know, he was always a paper-and-ink writer.]
February 20, 2025
My bookish soulmate. It's like seeing my thoughts arranged on paper articulately.
Loved Bookworm. Knew I'd feel the same about this, and it's even more so. If you're not a book addict, you won't understand the tears that form when you realise that your own absolute NEED to sit quietly with a book and not interact with the world for a bit is shared by other humans. That it isn't just you. That other people have that same relationship with stories that you do.
And to see Lucy's eclectic tastes steer her in every which way that her interests point, ahhhh, it was like coming home.
Taking up the story of the author's lifetime love affair with literature from her adolescence, book lovers will delight in seeing her journey through teenage years, university studies (ohh jealous - I still wish I could return and do the English degree I was destined for), unhappy and happy jobs, through to meeting a like-minded man, pregnancy and post-pregnancy issues, motherhood (and with it, back to the wonderful world of children's books afresh) and into middle age (no we aren't!).
Mangan is honest throughout - it's not high literature she seeks, it's pleasure, a thirst for stories and characters, knowledge and fascinations sated. So sometimes a Lee Child will do, other times it's Jane Austen.
We share a lot of both life experiences and reading experiences, and seeing my own craving for constant new stories was so satisfying it made me emotional. It's not just me.
Watching a life lived in books was such a pleasure for me. Reading how someone else experienced them, used them, needed them - it's something only a fellow reader will appreciate.
And seeing how books got the author through some truly upsetting and difficult moments in life was also so good to see put down on paper. That's what living multiple lifetimes with characters and writers can do for you. Seeing the author too find her true place in the world in a career she was surely born for was immensely satisfying. As was the construction of her eventual spiritual home (does she ever see her husband and child??!)
This is to be recommended, but to those people drawn to the title for the connection they can already see with the writer. You'll know who you are.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
Loved Bookworm. Knew I'd feel the same about this, and it's even more so. If you're not a book addict, you won't understand the tears that form when you realise that your own absolute NEED to sit quietly with a book and not interact with the world for a bit is shared by other humans. That it isn't just you. That other people have that same relationship with stories that you do.
And to see Lucy's eclectic tastes steer her in every which way that her interests point, ahhhh, it was like coming home.
Taking up the story of the author's lifetime love affair with literature from her adolescence, book lovers will delight in seeing her journey through teenage years, university studies (ohh jealous - I still wish I could return and do the English degree I was destined for), unhappy and happy jobs, through to meeting a like-minded man, pregnancy and post-pregnancy issues, motherhood (and with it, back to the wonderful world of children's books afresh) and into middle age (no we aren't!).
Mangan is honest throughout - it's not high literature she seeks, it's pleasure, a thirst for stories and characters, knowledge and fascinations sated. So sometimes a Lee Child will do, other times it's Jane Austen.
We share a lot of both life experiences and reading experiences, and seeing my own craving for constant new stories was so satisfying it made me emotional. It's not just me.
Watching a life lived in books was such a pleasure for me. Reading how someone else experienced them, used them, needed them - it's something only a fellow reader will appreciate.
And seeing how books got the author through some truly upsetting and difficult moments in life was also so good to see put down on paper. That's what living multiple lifetimes with characters and writers can do for you. Seeing the author too find her true place in the world in a career she was surely born for was immensely satisfying. As was the construction of her eventual spiritual home (does she ever see her husband and child??!)
This is to be recommended, but to those people drawn to the title for the connection they can already see with the writer. You'll know who you are.
With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.
March 16, 2025
It’s like reading about yourself and all your bookish friends and all the friends you haven’t met yet. It made me realize how not-well-read I am while also feeling no shame for that because Lucy Mangan is the opposite of a book snob. It made me laugh and cry. Well done.
May 15, 2026
Enjoyed this book about love of reading and brought back memories of the books I grew up with
June 20, 2025
I loved Lucy Mangan’s Bookworm, her powerful and evocative memoir of childhood reading so I was primed to enjoy its follow up. I’m pleased to report that it’s just as rich, funny and stimulating as its predecessor. Mangan captures the specialness of reading as a solitary activity that opens the reader’s mind to all human endeavour and the wider world without having to leave their chair. It’s a stimulant, a solace, an education and a never ending pleasure: ‘we each have one allotted span, one temperament, one upbringing, one set of experiences. To get more than you can accrue by yourself alone (however lively, driven or ambitious you are), you have to read’.
As with Bookworm, much of the pleasure in reading Bookish comes from the author’s generous keenness to share her reading passions and enthusiasms. It’s impossible to come away from it without a mental list of new books to hunt out and enjoy.
As with Bookworm, much of the pleasure in reading Bookish comes from the author’s generous keenness to share her reading passions and enthusiasms. It’s impossible to come away from it without a mental list of new books to hunt out and enjoy.
June 8, 2026
This is a book by a book lover all about books – what’s not to love? Full review to come!
Because I knew this review would take a while – there are so many great recommendations in this book – I took my time... and this is all typed by myself, so please like and comment and leave some love haha
Lucy Mangan divides this book into chapters and themes of her life that guide us through many genres, authors, and experiences. We start with her experiences of reading assignments while at school and end with what seems to be the current day. Though apparently simple, it quickly becomes obvious how much effort she put into every part of her book. I, myself, am neither a 40 to 50-year-old woman (I'm 26) nor grew up in Britain (Germany), which is why most works Lucy discusses in her book were unfamiliar to me, but this did not diminish my joy of reading. I can only imagine how heartwarming and wonderfully relatable this must be to people her age and background. Her writing was not dry or boring at all, but entertaining and funny!
I want to keep track of her recommendations (while quoting her smart and often hilarious comments in between that I loved), and I think this is the easiest way to do so. Here they are (with the corresponding chapter):
1. Flies, Rats and Mole: On Formative Novels
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1984 by George Orwell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
2. Mass Market: On the Joys of Genre Fiction
"Then, for our GCSEs, Mrs Jenkins set us on Wuthering Heights. Or set Wuthering Heights on us. It was the first book – and remains one of the very few – that bored me to furious tears. [...] I had been so entranced by Lord of the Flies and Nineteen Eighty-Four that I had made the mistake of trusting [Mrs Jenkins] to lead me onwards and upwards into an ever more dazzling world of Proper Literature. And then she goes and gives me the Gothic. [...] It's an exhaustingly mad and madly exhausting experience. [...] I do see [...] why Mrs Jenkins must have thought it was a slam dunk of a choice for the group of (mostly) boisterous, hormone-addled girls in front of her. Emotionally, Emily Brontë is a teenage girl, but one gifted with the ability to give voice to usually inarticulate longings, and who found a way to express inchoate yearnings through a sprawling cast of characters that included someone for everyone. Cathy for the nascent sex bomb, Isabelle for the wannabes and neverwoulds, Heathcliff for those already doomed to go for bad boys, and Edgar for those already doomed to settle for bad sex (but nice houses)."
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy
3. The Tyranny of Set Texts: On Reading the Canon
"Free indirect style means narrating something in the third person while keeping some elements, some of the perspective, of a first-person narrator so that you end up with a blend of objective and subjective truth and are able, as a writer, to reveal mich more about your character [...] than you would when limited to one or the other point of view. For example, in Sense and Sensibility you have this: 'Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able at all to sleep the first night after parting from Willoughby. She would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning, had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it.'"
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
"I also tried love and dating, and towards the end of A levels I did get a boyfriend. [...] When he broke up with me, I was upset, but pleased to have the insight into what all the stories involving any kind of sundered relationship [...] had been going on about. However much it hurts, a new kind of pain is always interesting. And once it passes, you have all the time back for reading that you used to spend lying on his bed trying to avoid his penis."
4. Dystopias, Decisions, Departure: On Academia
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
"Atwood classes her book as speculative rather than (as dystopias are usually categorised) science fiction, mainly because everything in it, she said, was drawn from life. Everything that happened in Gilead was happening, or had happened, somewhere in the world."
5. Dark Academia: On Studying the Classics
Cambridge University (note to self to visit): "Beauty, tranquillity and it turned out that the alleys not only didn't smell of piss, they also led – almost without exception – either to a library or a bookshop."
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
6. Guilty Pleasures: On Bookshops and Bonkbusters
"Most wonderfully – and most hidden away, in an even smaller, tighter area of St Edward's Passage, which was all part of the wonderfulness – was the Haunted Bookshop. This was full [...] of second-hand children's books."
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Once Is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann
7. By the Book: On Starting a Career
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
"[...] I was, and remain absolutely sure, that even if you do feel a book is undermining the foundations of civilisation [...] you do not need to snot all over anyone who is enjoying it. You can keep your nose out. You can do your bit by sticking to Ulysses or Proust [...]. Book snobbery is amongst the most dismal of all snobberies."
8. Book Lovers: On Romance Beyond the Page
"[...] Christopher's unflinching and practical help in dispersing my ignorance [...] was, I felt, a good measure of the man and formed a large part of my decision to allow the relationship to continue. Other good measures that I have discovered over the years [...] are: [...] 3. Above all, someone who, when you panic or feel guilty about the number of books you are buying or the delirious happiness it brings, only encourages you to buy more [...] I bought literally thousands of books over the years. It was the splurge to end all splurges. I did, despite Christopher's best efforts, feel guilty about it [...] Some people might say there was/is no need to. Second-hand book-shopping is one of the more ethically and environmentally sound pastimes available. It hurts no one, and maybe even helps a fraction of the economy. [...] There was only one [...] exculpatory factor, and this was the very real fear we had that second-hand bookshops were about to become a thing of the past, consigned to history as surely as candlestick-makers, coopers and blacksmiths, as the world marched remorselessly into the future of e-books, online sourcing, algorithmic suggestion and all the filtered, trammelled rest of it. [...] Looking back, I would say about one-third of the shops we visited in around 2005 have now disappeared."
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
"Six months later we got married. [...] We had, thank God, not been too consumed with wedding madness when it came to booking our honeymoon. Not for us a fortnight in the Maldives, a week in Paris or even a remote Greek island. But we did strike out for a new land – Wales. [...] Over breakfast each morning Christopher and I would choose a shop to concentrate on that day, walk there, split up to sieve through our respective areas of interest in silence, and then walk back to our room with our new treasures and read until dinner, have dinner, then read some more before going to bed to start the whole thing over again. We did have some sex too, but overall it was a great ten days. When we got home, a newly married couple, Christopher once again asked the question he had been asking every few years ever since we met. Was I ready to merge our book collections yet? He has been trying it every few years since, too. The answer remains the same. [...] 'I just don't think we're that close,' I said. I agreed to have a baby instead."
9. A New Mother's Life of Crime
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
"I think perhaps I fell so hard for so many of my son's books because they were the only fiction I was really reading through the toddler years and on into his early childhood. I had entered a non-fiction phase, partly out of necessity and partly out of guilt and/or hormonal imbalance. Necessity – toddler chasing, feeding and general wrangling – is not conducive to immersive reading. [...] Only being able to read a few pages of a good story at a time makes me murderous. So non-fiction, which could be picked up and put down any time without sparking homicidal levels of resentment, became the order of the day [...]"
10. A Library of One's Own: On Curating a Book Collection
"The potential fulfilment of the only ambition I have ever held in life was standing before me: a room of my own, with every one of my books (about 10,000 by this absurd point) around me."
"If there was ever a time when books saved me, it was in lockdown. Not that I was alone. The UK's fiction sales leapt by 16 per cent (or £100m) in 2020, and audiobook sales shot up by more than one-third, despite bricks-and-mortar shops largely being closed."
11. Like Father, Like Daughter: On Dad
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Lost For Words by Stephanie Butland
Happily Ever After by Harriet Evans
The Six Bullerby Children by Astrid Lindgren
Lotta on Troublemaker Street by Astrid Lindgren
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Because I knew this review would take a while – there are so many great recommendations in this book – I took my time... and this is all typed by myself, so please like and comment and leave some love haha
Lucy Mangan divides this book into chapters and themes of her life that guide us through many genres, authors, and experiences. We start with her experiences of reading assignments while at school and end with what seems to be the current day. Though apparently simple, it quickly becomes obvious how much effort she put into every part of her book. I, myself, am neither a 40 to 50-year-old woman (I'm 26) nor grew up in Britain (Germany), which is why most works Lucy discusses in her book were unfamiliar to me, but this did not diminish my joy of reading. I can only imagine how heartwarming and wonderfully relatable this must be to people her age and background. Her writing was not dry or boring at all, but entertaining and funny!
I want to keep track of her recommendations (while quoting her smart and often hilarious comments in between that I loved), and I think this is the easiest way to do so. Here they are (with the corresponding chapter):
1. Flies, Rats and Mole: On Formative Novels
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1984 by George Orwell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
2. Mass Market: On the Joys of Genre Fiction
"Then, for our GCSEs, Mrs Jenkins set us on Wuthering Heights. Or set Wuthering Heights on us. It was the first book – and remains one of the very few – that bored me to furious tears. [...] I had been so entranced by Lord of the Flies and Nineteen Eighty-Four that I had made the mistake of trusting [Mrs Jenkins] to lead me onwards and upwards into an ever more dazzling world of Proper Literature. And then she goes and gives me the Gothic. [...] It's an exhaustingly mad and madly exhausting experience. [...] I do see [...] why Mrs Jenkins must have thought it was a slam dunk of a choice for the group of (mostly) boisterous, hormone-addled girls in front of her. Emotionally, Emily Brontë is a teenage girl, but one gifted with the ability to give voice to usually inarticulate longings, and who found a way to express inchoate yearnings through a sprawling cast of characters that included someone for everyone. Cathy for the nascent sex bomb, Isabelle for the wannabes and neverwoulds, Heathcliff for those already doomed to go for bad boys, and Edgar for those already doomed to settle for bad sex (but nice houses)."
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy
3. The Tyranny of Set Texts: On Reading the Canon
"Free indirect style means narrating something in the third person while keeping some elements, some of the perspective, of a first-person narrator so that you end up with a blend of objective and subjective truth and are able, as a writer, to reveal mich more about your character [...] than you would when limited to one or the other point of view. For example, in Sense and Sensibility you have this: 'Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able at all to sleep the first night after parting from Willoughby. She would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning, had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it.'"
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
"I also tried love and dating, and towards the end of A levels I did get a boyfriend. [...] When he broke up with me, I was upset, but pleased to have the insight into what all the stories involving any kind of sundered relationship [...] had been going on about. However much it hurts, a new kind of pain is always interesting. And once it passes, you have all the time back for reading that you used to spend lying on his bed trying to avoid his penis."
4. Dystopias, Decisions, Departure: On Academia
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
"Atwood classes her book as speculative rather than (as dystopias are usually categorised) science fiction, mainly because everything in it, she said, was drawn from life. Everything that happened in Gilead was happening, or had happened, somewhere in the world."
5. Dark Academia: On Studying the Classics
Cambridge University (note to self to visit): "Beauty, tranquillity and it turned out that the alleys not only didn't smell of piss, they also led – almost without exception – either to a library or a bookshop."
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
6. Guilty Pleasures: On Bookshops and Bonkbusters
"Most wonderfully – and most hidden away, in an even smaller, tighter area of St Edward's Passage, which was all part of the wonderfulness – was the Haunted Bookshop. This was full [...] of second-hand children's books."
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Once Is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann
7. By the Book: On Starting a Career
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
"[...] I was, and remain absolutely sure, that even if you do feel a book is undermining the foundations of civilisation [...] you do not need to snot all over anyone who is enjoying it. You can keep your nose out. You can do your bit by sticking to Ulysses or Proust [...]. Book snobbery is amongst the most dismal of all snobberies."
8. Book Lovers: On Romance Beyond the Page
"[...] Christopher's unflinching and practical help in dispersing my ignorance [...] was, I felt, a good measure of the man and formed a large part of my decision to allow the relationship to continue. Other good measures that I have discovered over the years [...] are: [...] 3. Above all, someone who, when you panic or feel guilty about the number of books you are buying or the delirious happiness it brings, only encourages you to buy more [...] I bought literally thousands of books over the years. It was the splurge to end all splurges. I did, despite Christopher's best efforts, feel guilty about it [...] Some people might say there was/is no need to. Second-hand book-shopping is one of the more ethically and environmentally sound pastimes available. It hurts no one, and maybe even helps a fraction of the economy. [...] There was only one [...] exculpatory factor, and this was the very real fear we had that second-hand bookshops were about to become a thing of the past, consigned to history as surely as candlestick-makers, coopers and blacksmiths, as the world marched remorselessly into the future of e-books, online sourcing, algorithmic suggestion and all the filtered, trammelled rest of it. [...] Looking back, I would say about one-third of the shops we visited in around 2005 have now disappeared."
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
"Six months later we got married. [...] We had, thank God, not been too consumed with wedding madness when it came to booking our honeymoon. Not for us a fortnight in the Maldives, a week in Paris or even a remote Greek island. But we did strike out for a new land – Wales. [...] Over breakfast each morning Christopher and I would choose a shop to concentrate on that day, walk there, split up to sieve through our respective areas of interest in silence, and then walk back to our room with our new treasures and read until dinner, have dinner, then read some more before going to bed to start the whole thing over again. We did have some sex too, but overall it was a great ten days. When we got home, a newly married couple, Christopher once again asked the question he had been asking every few years ever since we met. Was I ready to merge our book collections yet? He has been trying it every few years since, too. The answer remains the same. [...] 'I just don't think we're that close,' I said. I agreed to have a baby instead."
9. A New Mother's Life of Crime
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
"I think perhaps I fell so hard for so many of my son's books because they were the only fiction I was really reading through the toddler years and on into his early childhood. I had entered a non-fiction phase, partly out of necessity and partly out of guilt and/or hormonal imbalance. Necessity – toddler chasing, feeding and general wrangling – is not conducive to immersive reading. [...] Only being able to read a few pages of a good story at a time makes me murderous. So non-fiction, which could be picked up and put down any time without sparking homicidal levels of resentment, became the order of the day [...]"
10. A Library of One's Own: On Curating a Book Collection
"The potential fulfilment of the only ambition I have ever held in life was standing before me: a room of my own, with every one of my books (about 10,000 by this absurd point) around me."
"If there was ever a time when books saved me, it was in lockdown. Not that I was alone. The UK's fiction sales leapt by 16 per cent (or £100m) in 2020, and audiobook sales shot up by more than one-third, despite bricks-and-mortar shops largely being closed."
11. Like Father, Like Daughter: On Dad
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Lost For Words by Stephanie Butland
Happily Ever After by Harriet Evans
The Six Bullerby Children by Astrid Lindgren
Lotta on Troublemaker Street by Astrid Lindgren
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
March 29, 2026
I borrowed this audiobook expecting a thoughtful exploration of how reading shapes us. By a quarter of the way through, it was clear: this isn’t that book. It’s a memoir, and not even a particularly generous one. Make no mistake, this is about her: her life, her experiences, her bookshelf. The title promises universality, but the text delivers autobiography. I kept waiting for the book to match its name, but it never did.
Rather than reflections on the power of reading, the book wandered into motherhood, childbirth (yes, including the author’s episiotomy), children’s books, and her Jack Reacher obsession. At 71 percent in, I considered quitting. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” I thought, pressing on.
And then there’s the narration. Some authors should not narrate their own audiobooks, and she is one of them. She tries to sound hip and contemporary, but the delivery comes across as oddly old‑fashioned and artificial. The result is a performance that feels forced and distracting, making the listening experience harder than it should be.
Having now finished it, I can say I’m very glad I didn’t buy this for my private library. The book is not about how reading shapes "our lives." It's about Lucy Mangan. And that, ultimately, is the problem.
Rather than reflections on the power of reading, the book wandered into motherhood, childbirth (yes, including the author’s episiotomy), children’s books, and her Jack Reacher obsession. At 71 percent in, I considered quitting. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” I thought, pressing on.
And then there’s the narration. Some authors should not narrate their own audiobooks, and she is one of them. She tries to sound hip and contemporary, but the delivery comes across as oddly old‑fashioned and artificial. The result is a performance that feels forced and distracting, making the listening experience harder than it should be.
Having now finished it, I can say I’m very glad I didn’t buy this for my private library. The book is not about how reading shapes "our lives." It's about Lucy Mangan. And that, ultimately, is the problem.
January 31, 2026
Audiobook listen ~ a book about books? Yes please. This memoir explores how books shaped Lucy Mangan’s life which is so different to anything I’ve read before. I did wish it felt more universal so I could resonate more with it, but that is the gift of a memoir.
January 4, 2026
*4.25*
April 1, 2025
Hier hat mich der Titel direkt angesprochen. Der englische Begriff klingt für meine Ohren so viel schöner als deutsche Begriffe wie "büchersüchtig" oder "bücherverrückt". Beim Untertitel wusste ich dagegen zuerst nicht, was mich erwarten würde. Ich hatte schon Bücher übers Lesen gelesen, bei denen die AutorInnen Bücher vorgestellt haben und in denen ich viele wunderbare Titel für mich gefunden habe.
Lucy Mangan nimmt einen anderen Ansatz. Sie erzählt wie sehr das Bücher und das Lesen schon immer ein großer Teil ihres Lebens waren. Gleich am Anfang hat sie mich mit der Aussage abgeholt, dass sie nicht liest um andere zu beeindrucken, sondern rein zu ihrem eigenen Vergnügen. Da habe ich mich wiedergefunden und ich konnte auch ihren Unmut darüber verstehen, dass sie für die Schule lesen musste. Nicht wegen des Lesens selbst. Aber die Lektüre vorgeschrieben bekommen, das wollte sie nicht, Ihre Leidenschaft macht Lucy oft zur Außenseiterin und auch nicht alle in Lucys Familie sind gleich verständnisvoll, was ihre Leidenschaft angeht. Aber diese Menschen werden immer weniger wichtig für sie, je älter sie wird.
Ihr Leben dreht sich um Bücher, alles andere ist zweitrangig, auch die Überlegungen zu Studium und weiterer Arbeit. Als Lucy ihr Studium beginnt, erkennt sie dass sie mit ihrer Leidenschaft nicht allein ist. Vielen vergeht während des Studiums die Lust zu lesen, bei Lucy ist es anders. Jede ihrer Lektüren begeistert sie und sie kann mir diese Begeisterung vermitteln.
Lucy will Bücher nicht nur lesen, sondern auch besitzen und so ist die Zahl ihrer Bücher riesig. Aber gerade in schweren Zeiten hilft ihr ihre eigene Bibliothek. Als sie mit ihrer Familie während der Pandemie in ihrem neuen Haus eingeschlossen sind, baut sie sich das perfekte Lesezimmer, in dem sie die ihre Lieblinge immer wieder umsortiert, bis sie das für sich perfekte System gefunden hat.
Das Buch hat mich von der ersten Seite an begeistert. Das ist bei diesem Thema natürlich nicht schwer, aber trotzdem ist es auch hier ein etwas Besonderes.
Lucy Mangan nimmt einen anderen Ansatz. Sie erzählt wie sehr das Bücher und das Lesen schon immer ein großer Teil ihres Lebens waren. Gleich am Anfang hat sie mich mit der Aussage abgeholt, dass sie nicht liest um andere zu beeindrucken, sondern rein zu ihrem eigenen Vergnügen. Da habe ich mich wiedergefunden und ich konnte auch ihren Unmut darüber verstehen, dass sie für die Schule lesen musste. Nicht wegen des Lesens selbst. Aber die Lektüre vorgeschrieben bekommen, das wollte sie nicht, Ihre Leidenschaft macht Lucy oft zur Außenseiterin und auch nicht alle in Lucys Familie sind gleich verständnisvoll, was ihre Leidenschaft angeht. Aber diese Menschen werden immer weniger wichtig für sie, je älter sie wird.
Ihr Leben dreht sich um Bücher, alles andere ist zweitrangig, auch die Überlegungen zu Studium und weiterer Arbeit. Als Lucy ihr Studium beginnt, erkennt sie dass sie mit ihrer Leidenschaft nicht allein ist. Vielen vergeht während des Studiums die Lust zu lesen, bei Lucy ist es anders. Jede ihrer Lektüren begeistert sie und sie kann mir diese Begeisterung vermitteln.
Lucy will Bücher nicht nur lesen, sondern auch besitzen und so ist die Zahl ihrer Bücher riesig. Aber gerade in schweren Zeiten hilft ihr ihre eigene Bibliothek. Als sie mit ihrer Familie während der Pandemie in ihrem neuen Haus eingeschlossen sind, baut sie sich das perfekte Lesezimmer, in dem sie die ihre Lieblinge immer wieder umsortiert, bis sie das für sich perfekte System gefunden hat.
Das Buch hat mich von der ersten Seite an begeistert. Das ist bei diesem Thema natürlich nicht schwer, aber trotzdem ist es auch hier ein etwas Besonderes.
July 19, 2025
I think the biggest mistake that Lucy Mangan made with this book (or rather, the biggest mistake that Lucy Mangan’s publisher made with this book) was making the subtitle: “How reading shapes our lives”. I went into this without knowing anything about it, expecting non-fiction — maybe a history of books or a breakdown of the publishing industry.
This is not a book about how reading shapes *our* lives. It is a memoir about how reading shapes *Lucy Mangan’s* life and only hers. Which is fantastic, if you are Lucy Mangan, or someone who knows her very well, or someone who has lived a similar life and read similar books to her. Needless to say, I am not a middle-aged white British mother and so a lot of this book didn’t resonate with me very deeply.
The best parts of the memoir (because it is a memoir, not that you’ll really find that highly marketed) were when Mangan told me about her life. The parts about grief. The parts about her brief foray into law school and what it was like to be a new mother struggling with post-natal depression. As readers, we always want to inhabit other peoples’ lives, so, having had none of these particular experiences, I enjoyed living through her depictions of them (and the book certainly is well written). In other words, I actually liked the memoir-y bits of the memoir.
Unfortunately, these parts were few and far between, because the rest of the book is essentially just hundreds of book reviews pasted back to back. Now I love book reviews. I write a lot of them. You’re reading one right now. But I can’t help feeling that a book’s worth of book reviews is not a particularly compelling premise.
Anyways, it wasn’t much for me, but at the same time, I do think there was something comforting about being able to turn on the audiobook and listen to Mangan talk. Something maternal, maybe? She seems like a sweet person. I’m not one to push through books I don’t enjoy (I’ll just DNF) but I did finish this one start to finish so maybe there was something that kept me going.
This is not a book about how reading shapes *our* lives. It is a memoir about how reading shapes *Lucy Mangan’s* life and only hers. Which is fantastic, if you are Lucy Mangan, or someone who knows her very well, or someone who has lived a similar life and read similar books to her. Needless to say, I am not a middle-aged white British mother and so a lot of this book didn’t resonate with me very deeply.
The best parts of the memoir (because it is a memoir, not that you’ll really find that highly marketed) were when Mangan told me about her life. The parts about grief. The parts about her brief foray into law school and what it was like to be a new mother struggling with post-natal depression. As readers, we always want to inhabit other peoples’ lives, so, having had none of these particular experiences, I enjoyed living through her depictions of them (and the book certainly is well written). In other words, I actually liked the memoir-y bits of the memoir.
Unfortunately, these parts were few and far between, because the rest of the book is essentially just hundreds of book reviews pasted back to back. Now I love book reviews. I write a lot of them. You’re reading one right now. But I can’t help feeling that a book’s worth of book reviews is not a particularly compelling premise.
Anyways, it wasn’t much for me, but at the same time, I do think there was something comforting about being able to turn on the audiobook and listen to Mangan talk. Something maternal, maybe? She seems like a sweet person. I’m not one to push through books I don’t enjoy (I’ll just DNF) but I did finish this one start to finish so maybe there was something that kept me going.
March 6, 2025
Isn't it just great when a book enters your life and completely changes you? Thank you to Vintage Books for helping change my life and sending this book to me to review.
I have always been enthralled by the idea of writing a memoir about the books in my life but never knew where to start or whether it would be of interest to anyone yet here I was inhaling this book every second of every day. I love getting into the minds of people, especially into the minds of people's reading habits. I want to know what books people like, what books people dislike, hate even! That's why I host a book group and attend another one. It's honestly part of the reason I am a bookseller. People's book tastes are a peek into someone's soul.
So having a whole book where someone not only shares moments of their life but also their fave books was an ultimate win for me. This book was witty, hilarious, engaging, and heartfelt and I loved seeing where our tastes overlapped and also making a note of books mentioned that I would love to read someday. Mangan's writing is super easy to read and accessible so I flew through this in no time at all. I was mostly obsessed with hearing about her multitude of reading holidays across the UK that I so desperately want to convince my non-reading partner to do with me.
I hope to potentially one day follow in Lucy's footsteps and write a book about books that have shaped me. Not for anyone to read, of course, but to have it noted down and secured to personal history.
I have always been enthralled by the idea of writing a memoir about the books in my life but never knew where to start or whether it would be of interest to anyone yet here I was inhaling this book every second of every day. I love getting into the minds of people, especially into the minds of people's reading habits. I want to know what books people like, what books people dislike, hate even! That's why I host a book group and attend another one. It's honestly part of the reason I am a bookseller. People's book tastes are a peek into someone's soul.
So having a whole book where someone not only shares moments of their life but also their fave books was an ultimate win for me. This book was witty, hilarious, engaging, and heartfelt and I loved seeing where our tastes overlapped and also making a note of books mentioned that I would love to read someday. Mangan's writing is super easy to read and accessible so I flew through this in no time at all. I was mostly obsessed with hearing about her multitude of reading holidays across the UK that I so desperately want to convince my non-reading partner to do with me.
I hope to potentially one day follow in Lucy's footsteps and write a book about books that have shaped me. Not for anyone to read, of course, but to have it noted down and secured to personal history.
December 10, 2024
I loved Bookworm when it first came out so I was excited to see that Lucy Mangan wrote a sequel and even more ecstatic when I was approved for an arc.
This book was an absolute delight and I devoured it in a matter of hours. Just like in its predecessor Mangan‘s narrative voice is light and entertaining. You just feel her love of books ooze from the pages (and while that sounds a bit gross I mean it in all the most positive of ways). ;) The book begins where Bookworm left off and takes us through Mangan‘s bookish teenage and adult years, tackling GCSE and college reading lists, helping her navigate relationships etc. I definitely want a hardback copy on my shelf as the digital copy just isn’t enough so I‘ll buy one when the book comes out. I‘m sure it will be even prettier inside and out with a ‘real’ cover.
This book was an absolute delight and I devoured it in a matter of hours. Just like in its predecessor Mangan‘s narrative voice is light and entertaining. You just feel her love of books ooze from the pages (and while that sounds a bit gross I mean it in all the most positive of ways). ;) The book begins where Bookworm left off and takes us through Mangan‘s bookish teenage and adult years, tackling GCSE and college reading lists, helping her navigate relationships etc. I definitely want a hardback copy on my shelf as the digital copy just isn’t enough so I‘ll buy one when the book comes out. I‘m sure it will be even prettier inside and out with a ‘real’ cover.
March 12, 2026
Parts of this were 5 ⭐️s and some parts felt a bit less inspired and more rambly.
I didn’t laugh out loud, but I certainly smiled and nodded my head quite a bit reading this homage to books and the people who are addicted to them.
What I loved about the author is her refusal to be snobbish about what she or anyone else chooses to read. (I can be a bit of a book snob myself but as Lucy would say, “I’m working on myself!”)
Some of the books Mangan adores I did too and others I just didn’t care for and still others I felt the nudge to add to my TBR list simply because she made them sound so wonderful. She is British and so there are books from her childhood and education at Cambridge that aren’t as large a part of growing up in the US so it was interesting to hear about her early reading influences.
She has a special connection to her father who also was very bookish and I enjoyed all her writing about him and their shared love of reading.
I bought this book in hardcover and it will find a place on my very pared down bookshelves for future reference. I don’t buy many books anymore, and I’m not usually a re-reader (Mangan would not be impressed by this reader flaw) but it feels right to own a book written by a woman who has a collection of 10,000 at last count!
I didn’t laugh out loud, but I certainly smiled and nodded my head quite a bit reading this homage to books and the people who are addicted to them.
What I loved about the author is her refusal to be snobbish about what she or anyone else chooses to read. (I can be a bit of a book snob myself but as Lucy would say, “I’m working on myself!”)
Some of the books Mangan adores I did too and others I just didn’t care for and still others I felt the nudge to add to my TBR list simply because she made them sound so wonderful. She is British and so there are books from her childhood and education at Cambridge that aren’t as large a part of growing up in the US so it was interesting to hear about her early reading influences.
She has a special connection to her father who also was very bookish and I enjoyed all her writing about him and their shared love of reading.
I bought this book in hardcover and it will find a place on my very pared down bookshelves for future reference. I don’t buy many books anymore, and I’m not usually a re-reader (Mangan would not be impressed by this reader flaw) but it feels right to own a book written by a woman who has a collection of 10,000 at last count!
May 2, 2026
I love books about reading, written by book lovers. Especially when they make me feel better about the size of my book collection, and give me so many more books I want to read.
March 16, 2025
Finally, a book about books and reading that doesn’t sneer at genre fiction in favour of the DWG (dead white guy) canon, despite the author’s degree in Literature from Cambridge. Lucy Mangan may admire Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Spenser Edmunds and the like, but she’s also fond of Lee Child, Marian Keyes, Emily Henry and Riley Sager, and not afraid to admit it.
Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives is a follow up to Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, in which Mangan shares her love of books as a child. Here Lucy discusses her relationship with reading from late adolescence through to midlife adulthood.
The narrative is generally lighthearted though the author touches on some serious subjects such as stress, grief, and the pandemic. Mangan is an engaging writer who shares her thoughts and experiences articulately with enthusiasm and sincerity.
Mangan and I are of a similar age so many of the books she references are familiar, and we have enjoyed several of the same titles. We also share some milestones - university, marriage, motherhood, lockdown, so I could relate to how these events affected her reading habits. I too have a swathe of books that fall into “the category of Things I Feel I Might Like and Will Get to In the Fullness of Time, But Certainly Not Within What Normal People Would Call a Reasonable Period.” Regrettably I don’t have a dedicated library in my back garden, and my collection of physical books is slightly more modest, but maybe one day.
I enjoyed Bookish, it’s written for readers by a reader who, like me, reads, “Not to impress others, not under a completist compulsion, not to please someone or to try and make myself amenable to them…” but because, “A love of books is something ineradicable…” that brings comfort and joy.
Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives is a follow up to Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, in which Mangan shares her love of books as a child. Here Lucy discusses her relationship with reading from late adolescence through to midlife adulthood.
The narrative is generally lighthearted though the author touches on some serious subjects such as stress, grief, and the pandemic. Mangan is an engaging writer who shares her thoughts and experiences articulately with enthusiasm and sincerity.
Mangan and I are of a similar age so many of the books she references are familiar, and we have enjoyed several of the same titles. We also share some milestones - university, marriage, motherhood, lockdown, so I could relate to how these events affected her reading habits. I too have a swathe of books that fall into “the category of Things I Feel I Might Like and Will Get to In the Fullness of Time, But Certainly Not Within What Normal People Would Call a Reasonable Period.” Regrettably I don’t have a dedicated library in my back garden, and my collection of physical books is slightly more modest, but maybe one day.
I enjoyed Bookish, it’s written for readers by a reader who, like me, reads, “Not to impress others, not under a completist compulsion, not to please someone or to try and make myself amenable to them…” but because, “A love of books is something ineradicable…” that brings comfort and joy.
April 6, 2025
This one is a must for any book lover. Lucy Mangan begins her reading journey in Bookworm (which is still on my tbr so don’t worry, reading it first isn’t essential) and continues her story here with Bookish, which focuses on the books she fell in love with as an adult.
This is a glorious traverse through a lot of very familiar, some not so familiar and several completely new (to me) books. Warning, your tbr will not thank you for reading this one as it will inevitably grow!
These pages cover books, bookstores, libraries - and the delight the author has found in creating her own library, something which most of us here will aspire to. It’s funny, entertaining and hugely relatable. It made me nostalgic for the classics, for bonkbusters, even for Little House on the Prairie, a book which I haven’t ever read but now really want to!
This is the perfect treat for a book lover. I mean we love books, we love reading books, we love talking about books so reading a book that’s all about reading books, tell me whay could be better?!
This is a glorious traverse through a lot of very familiar, some not so familiar and several completely new (to me) books. Warning, your tbr will not thank you for reading this one as it will inevitably grow!
These pages cover books, bookstores, libraries - and the delight the author has found in creating her own library, something which most of us here will aspire to. It’s funny, entertaining and hugely relatable. It made me nostalgic for the classics, for bonkbusters, even for Little House on the Prairie, a book which I haven’t ever read but now really want to!
This is the perfect treat for a book lover. I mean we love books, we love reading books, we love talking about books so reading a book that’s all about reading books, tell me whay could be better?!
December 28, 2024
How I have not become Lucy Manghan’s best friend I do not know. I am the same age, was born in Lewisham hospital and bought up around Croydon / Bromley and I love books. Maybe it could still be arranged! I was very happy to get an early review copy of this book and I enjoyed it very much as I do all big book lists. Sad there was no mention of the Catford cat but I liked the story of her relationship with her husband and read some of these things out to my wife. I think they are both of the same ilk. Thanks NetGalley for the chance to review this.
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April 14, 2026This book memoir is as lovely and cozy as the cover. I was introduced to as many new options as I was reminded of old favorites.
August 14, 2025
raamat, mida ma oleks pidanud täiel rinnal nautima, aga mis ärritas mind ootamatult palju, sest lihtsalt... too much of a good thing?
sama autori lapsepõlveraamatumälestustega ("Bookworm") suhestusin mingid aastad tagasi täiesti, oli hästi hubane lugemine ja väikese Lucy raamatuobsessioon klappis täiesti väikese Kitty omaga, kui ka raamatud päris samad ei olnud. aga keskealiselt naiselt ootaks kuidagi... nüansirikkamat lähenemist.
Mangan tõmbab siin self-deprecationiga kohati päris kõvasti üle, ma tüdinesin lõpuks ikka väga ära tema sotsiaalse saamatuse ja üldise introvertsuse kirjeldustest. tema pereliikmete nahas ka ei tahaks olla, selgelt on naad raamatute järel alati kuskil kümnetuhandendal kohal ta elus. kui ehk välja arvata armastatud isa, kellelt kogu raamatuobsessioon päritud/õpitud on. (eks muidugi pean ka teadvustama oma privileegi - endal mul pole olnud vaja sünnitusjärgse depressiooni või isa leinamise eest raamatutesse põgeneda.)
huvitav osa oli siin see, kus ta kirjeldas, mismoodi oli lugemine kooli- ja ülikooliajal ehk siis mida õieti kujutab endast ühe inglise kooli inglise keele õppekava ja hiljem ka ülikoolis inglise keele õppimine. üldiselt ikkagi liiga vanade ja keeruliste raamatute lugemist ja analüüsimist, selgub.
igal juhul... lugesin läbi terve paksu raamatu raamatutest ja lugemisest, ja ei lisanud selle käigus ühtegi nimetust omaenda lugemisnimekirja. meh.
sama autori lapsepõlveraamatumälestustega ("Bookworm") suhestusin mingid aastad tagasi täiesti, oli hästi hubane lugemine ja väikese Lucy raamatuobsessioon klappis täiesti väikese Kitty omaga, kui ka raamatud päris samad ei olnud. aga keskealiselt naiselt ootaks kuidagi... nüansirikkamat lähenemist.
Mangan tõmbab siin self-deprecationiga kohati päris kõvasti üle, ma tüdinesin lõpuks ikka väga ära tema sotsiaalse saamatuse ja üldise introvertsuse kirjeldustest. tema pereliikmete nahas ka ei tahaks olla, selgelt on naad raamatute järel alati kuskil kümnetuhandendal kohal ta elus. kui ehk välja arvata armastatud isa, kellelt kogu raamatuobsessioon päritud/õpitud on. (eks muidugi pean ka teadvustama oma privileegi - endal mul pole olnud vaja sünnitusjärgse depressiooni või isa leinamise eest raamatutesse põgeneda.)
huvitav osa oli siin see, kus ta kirjeldas, mismoodi oli lugemine kooli- ja ülikooliajal ehk siis mida õieti kujutab endast ühe inglise kooli inglise keele õppekava ja hiljem ka ülikoolis inglise keele õppimine. üldiselt ikkagi liiga vanade ja keeruliste raamatute lugemist ja analüüsimist, selgub.
igal juhul... lugesin läbi terve paksu raamatu raamatutest ja lugemisest, ja ei lisanud selle käigus ühtegi nimetust omaenda lugemisnimekirja. meh.
November 25, 2025
3.5.
I really enjoyed this book but was disappointed to see a whole section regarding HP and a direct quote from Woody Allen.
There was a brief mention of reconciling the author as a person versus their work,so these 2 things could have been a part of that.
Publishing a book in 2025 that references HP without acknowledging the JK controversy is just so short-sighted and pretty cowardly in my view.
I really enjoyed this book but was disappointed to see a whole section regarding HP and a direct quote from Woody Allen.
There was a brief mention of reconciling the author as a person versus their work,so these 2 things could have been a part of that.
Publishing a book in 2025 that references HP without acknowledging the JK controversy is just so short-sighted and pretty cowardly in my view.
May 18, 2025
I really wanted to like this book but struggled not to skim through the pages as I felt like I was listening to someone rambling and reviewing or summarising as many books as can possible be fitted into the pages. The themes were good, I just wish the chapters were a bit less overwhelming and tiring to read.
June 21, 2025
Fine. Would not recommend to anyone that likes a plot. I fear if you’re not an introverted bookworm whose only personality trait is being an introverted bookworm, you probably won’t actually enjoy this book…
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