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Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives
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 exploring the stacks as a student, to finding her feet as a bookseller-turned-journalist, falling for a fellow bookworm in an independent bookshop, escaping the doldrums of new motherhood and finally building a (book) room of her own, Bookish is the story of a life spent falling in love with reading. Bookworm author Lucy Mangan chronicles her years of buying, borrowing and hoarding everything from well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures.
Brimming with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations, this book is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookstores big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.
'A bookworm's delight' Sara Collins | 'A gorgeous hug of a book – funny, warm and charming' Marian Keyes | 'Comforting, funny and moving' Sali Hughes | 'Lucy Mangan on books is 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 exploring the stacks as a student, to finding her feet as a bookseller-turned-journalist, falling for a fellow bookworm in an independent bookshop, escaping the doldrums of new motherhood and finally building a (book) room of her own, Bookish is the story of a life spent falling in love with reading. Bookworm author Lucy Mangan chronicles her years of buying, borrowing and hoarding everything from well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures.
Brimming with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations, this book is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookstores big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.
'A bookworm's delight' Sara Collins | 'A gorgeous hug of a book – funny, warm and charming' Marian Keyes | 'Comforting, funny and moving' Sali Hughes | 'Lucy Mangan on books is like butter on perfect' Caitlin Moran
Lucy Mangan 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Audible Audio
First published March 13, 2025
78 people are currently reading
1935 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Mangan
20 books169 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 128 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."
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.
Read
January 1, 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 psths 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, coveri g 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 books. 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 writer's 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 whe 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 odies 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 writrs of readong 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 search second hand books shops, reading while breast feeding, resdong 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 psths 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, coveri g 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 books. 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 writer's 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 whe 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 odies 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 writrs of readong 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 search second hand books shops, reading while breast feeding, resdong in your work lunch break on the toilet, that all seems normal in comparison.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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…
June 8, 2025
4 ⭐
A lovely heart warming story for all of the bookish people in the world.
A lovely heart warming story for all of the bookish people in the world.
January 9, 2026
When Lucy Mangan first met her husband, he told her how irritated he was to have had to come out to a book launch when he had just started a book on the Suez Crisis. She recognised a kindred soul.
When I started reading Bookwise (and its precursor, Bookworm) I felt much the same about Lucy. Introvert - yes, tick; anti-social - tick; loather of parties - tick; obsessive reader - tick; hatred of literary snobbery - yes indeed (I am currently reading Jilly Cooper's Rivals, and Maeve Binchy's Light A Penny Candle is another favourite.)Lover of bookshops everywhere - oh yes. Lover of old children's books - why yes, of course! - I have shelves of them, and not all came from my own childhood, like Lucy I still pounce on them in second hand and charity shops. And she's heard of - and indeed read - Eve Garnett's Family From One End Street books, one of my favourite children's series, much of it reminscent of my own of my own mother's childhood. I don't know a single other person who even know what I'm talking about.
Lucy's honeymoon was spent not in the Caribbean but at Hay on Wye - of course it was! What an absolutely perfect place for two avid book hunters. A work trip to New York City involved daily visits to Strand bookshop. Pre-motherhood holidays were devoted to seeking out tiny, obscure booksellers in Norfolk. I can't think of anything better.
Lucy writes movngly about her father, who instilled her love of reading from a very early age. The rest of the book chronicles her school days, university life (which mirrored mine as another state school girl at Cambridge, though I get the impression Lucy worked a lot harder than I did...), a first career in law (me too - hated it) then her progression to Waterstones (which would have been my dream job, that or a library) and, of course, to The Guardian. What a star.
Lucy's writing is so witty, and, like her TV reviews, always on point; there is no waffle. Again I completely identify with her joy at being able to create a personal library in a building in her back garden. I often wander into our sitting room (no garden building for me, sadly) just to look at my bookshelves. They make me happy.
I recommend this book to everyone who loves books, reading, book shopping, book people...you get the idea I'm sure. It's wonderful.
When I started reading Bookwise (and its precursor, Bookworm) I felt much the same about Lucy. Introvert - yes, tick; anti-social - tick; loather of parties - tick; obsessive reader - tick; hatred of literary snobbery - yes indeed (I am currently reading Jilly Cooper's Rivals, and Maeve Binchy's Light A Penny Candle is another favourite.)Lover of bookshops everywhere - oh yes. Lover of old children's books - why yes, of course! - I have shelves of them, and not all came from my own childhood, like Lucy I still pounce on them in second hand and charity shops. And she's heard of - and indeed read - Eve Garnett's Family From One End Street books, one of my favourite children's series, much of it reminscent of my own of my own mother's childhood. I don't know a single other person who even know what I'm talking about.
Lucy's honeymoon was spent not in the Caribbean but at Hay on Wye - of course it was! What an absolutely perfect place for two avid book hunters. A work trip to New York City involved daily visits to Strand bookshop. Pre-motherhood holidays were devoted to seeking out tiny, obscure booksellers in Norfolk. I can't think of anything better.
Lucy writes movngly about her father, who instilled her love of reading from a very early age. The rest of the book chronicles her school days, university life (which mirrored mine as another state school girl at Cambridge, though I get the impression Lucy worked a lot harder than I did...), a first career in law (me too - hated it) then her progression to Waterstones (which would have been my dream job, that or a library) and, of course, to The Guardian. What a star.
Lucy's writing is so witty, and, like her TV reviews, always on point; there is no waffle. Again I completely identify with her joy at being able to create a personal library in a building in her back garden. I often wander into our sitting room (no garden building for me, sadly) just to look at my bookshelves. They make me happy.
I recommend this book to everyone who loves books, reading, book shopping, book people...you get the idea I'm sure. It's wonderful.
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.
July 4, 2025
I don't usually read books About books, because I tend to find it naval-gazey (and like, why would I read a book about reading if I could just read another book) but my mother came out of the bathroom and gave this to me and told me to read it, and like a good daughter I did thusly, although I was miffed she'd made the dust cover all crinkly from reading it in the bath. I enjoyed it! Witty and occasionally moving, and more relatable than I was expecting (her uni experience, except from the Cambridge of it all, was very similar to mine lol). I've picked up a lot of recommendations from it too; Mangan and I don't quite have the same taste (she doesn't have much of an interest in fantasy literature, but I'll die if I don't read fantasy for too long) but nonetheless there was so much to enjoy in here. There really is a universality to the whole experience regardless of what you read, and I'm wildly jealous of her library!
June 21, 2025
There were almost too many books to note as I went through this book. A very bookish book, very funny in parts - look up reading a book during sex - and lots of shared reads and experiences. If this was a sweet pudding it would have hidden spices and chunks of ginger to make you love eating even more - despite traces of chilli.
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.
March 11, 2025
Having already read “Bookworm,” I was looking forward to continuing through the author's readings, which, being almost my age, reminded me of a lot of books I had “forgotten.” Unfortunately, the English environment is not the same as the one where I grew up, nor did I have a parent or husband to support me in this tsundoku mania of mine, but in my own small way I can consider myself quite satisfied even though I still don't have a studio with super high bookshelves nor even the ladder that moves, but you never can tell what fate will throw at us.
Avendo giá letto "Bookworm" non vedevo l'ora di proseguire attraverso le letture dell'autrice che, avendo quasi la mia etá, mi ha fatto ricordare un sacco di libri che avevo "dimenticato". Purtroppo l'ambiente inglese non é lo stesso dove sono cresciuta io, né ho avuto un genitore o un marito che mi appoggiasse in questa mia tsundoku mania, ma nel mio piccolo posso ritenermi abbastanza soddisfatta anche se non ho ancora uno studio con delle librerie cielo terra né tantomeno la scaletta che si muove, ma non si puó mai dire cosa ci riserva il destino.
Avendo giá letto "Bookworm" non vedevo l'ora di proseguire attraverso le letture dell'autrice che, avendo quasi la mia etá, mi ha fatto ricordare un sacco di libri che avevo "dimenticato". Purtroppo l'ambiente inglese non é lo stesso dove sono cresciuta io, né ho avuto un genitore o un marito che mi appoggiasse in questa mia tsundoku mania, ma nel mio piccolo posso ritenermi abbastanza soddisfatta anche se non ho ancora uno studio con delle librerie cielo terra né tantomeno la scaletta che si muove, ma non si puó mai dire cosa ci riserva il destino.
Read
April 5, 2025Very interesting and relatable as an avid reader
November 28, 2025
“Bookish” is a combination of memoire, and the author’s thoughts on “How reading (books) shapes our lives”. It's also a paean to her subject. She clearly loves reading and has a passion for all things related to books.
On the very first page of Bookish she confesses that she suffers from “my tsundoku habit” – the Japanese term for the act of buying books that far exceeds the speed at which you can read them. As the author later describes, tsundoku concerns the continuous need to learn.
Or in her own words - “that, of course, is why we buy hundreds more books than we can ever read each year. It’s like laying down wine, but it’s you who changes and matures until you’re ready to consume your stores. And it suggests a deep, unsuspected order to at least your inner universe”. (Page 238/9.)
Indeed.
Bookish is extremely insightful, well written fast moving, personal, and at times very funny. Regarding insights, the outlines the differences in browsing through a modern bookstore versus a used book shop – the latter of which is like prospecting where you uncover treasures. Or the differences between fiction where you immerse yourself in a different world versus non-fiction where you can put it down and pick up where you left off more easily. This insight was gained after the birth of Mangan’s son.
The passion and skill of her prose surfaces throughout the book but is never clearer than when describing the experience in reading aloud children’s books: Library Lion “is a perfectly plotted, perfectly weighted, perfectly sublime thing. It is a perfect reading-aloud experience too. You find your voice automatically shifting into a pushy, prissy register for Mr. McBee, and yourself sitting up a little straighter when you voice Miss Merriweather, as if a little extra strength is entering your spine and soul”.
And she works this magic while making fun of life and fun of herself. She’s often marvelous!
Some of the lessons I learned, or re-learned in reading Bookish, include:
• Books as a refuge: In our teenage years new books find us and become a refuge from the world outside p 3. Over our lives we turn to this refuge, to escape, learn, and be entertained.
• Books will help you prosper”. Pushed her out into the world, helping understand the people around me in a new way. P4/5
• Books present you with new Ideas – big books like Lord of the Flies and Nineteen Eighty Four – teach us about human nature as seen through the eyes of others p12 We don’t have to experience dystopias to understand how they can be possible.
• Books help you Understand others – we don’t see the world as it is; rather we see the world as we are. Books and stories help us see how others view the world, so we can learn from their experience. Further, books don’t cause us to escape life, they enable us to live other lives.
• Books as inspiration – self explanatory.
• Books help define and shape your identity – Life is about discovering purpose, character, and identity. Books can help you do this. Margaret Atwood via “The Handmaid’s Tale” seemed to spark a feminist identity within the author. Books are also about personal choice as the author (and I) often disagree with what experts believe is quality writing.
• Books demonstrate the Power of words – Moveable type was the greatest invention in history p 117 “No normal person had a hope of mastering more than an infinitesimal fragment, let alone the whole of what was spread before me” p. 117
• Books equal Peace. This is true in private and in public places like libraries.
• Books are a history language and life – Chaucer, Shakesphere, Austin. They track how language and the world evolves.
• Books are a higher demonstration of humanity. – people in book stores buy more from love than necessity. They are more considered and reading books is “higher up” Maslov’s hierarchy of needs – being more self-actualization than functional.
I’m a prolific book reader and have been for a few decades now. While I read frequently Lucy Mangan taught me many things I’m missing. This is invaluable – for no matter how much you know something you can always learn from others and improve. Like the author I focus on one genre more than another. She focused on fiction and I non-fiction. And like her I seldom re-read my books as I “must go on, must get on, not go backwards”. This also became an enduring policy.
Mangan helps break me out of this thinking. As she said “Adults need succour and comfort from well-worn tales at least as much as children do” and that I should re-read at least some of my books. It’s a start.
I thank her for this as what may be the most important contribution for me.
This is a very good book. It had moments of greatness. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
On the very first page of Bookish she confesses that she suffers from “my tsundoku habit” – the Japanese term for the act of buying books that far exceeds the speed at which you can read them. As the author later describes, tsundoku concerns the continuous need to learn.
Or in her own words - “that, of course, is why we buy hundreds more books than we can ever read each year. It’s like laying down wine, but it’s you who changes and matures until you’re ready to consume your stores. And it suggests a deep, unsuspected order to at least your inner universe”. (Page 238/9.)
Indeed.
Bookish is extremely insightful, well written fast moving, personal, and at times very funny. Regarding insights, the outlines the differences in browsing through a modern bookstore versus a used book shop – the latter of which is like prospecting where you uncover treasures. Or the differences between fiction where you immerse yourself in a different world versus non-fiction where you can put it down and pick up where you left off more easily. This insight was gained after the birth of Mangan’s son.
The passion and skill of her prose surfaces throughout the book but is never clearer than when describing the experience in reading aloud children’s books: Library Lion “is a perfectly plotted, perfectly weighted, perfectly sublime thing. It is a perfect reading-aloud experience too. You find your voice automatically shifting into a pushy, prissy register for Mr. McBee, and yourself sitting up a little straighter when you voice Miss Merriweather, as if a little extra strength is entering your spine and soul”.
And she works this magic while making fun of life and fun of herself. She’s often marvelous!
Some of the lessons I learned, or re-learned in reading Bookish, include:
• Books as a refuge: In our teenage years new books find us and become a refuge from the world outside p 3. Over our lives we turn to this refuge, to escape, learn, and be entertained.
• Books will help you prosper”. Pushed her out into the world, helping understand the people around me in a new way. P4/5
• Books present you with new Ideas – big books like Lord of the Flies and Nineteen Eighty Four – teach us about human nature as seen through the eyes of others p12 We don’t have to experience dystopias to understand how they can be possible.
• Books help you Understand others – we don’t see the world as it is; rather we see the world as we are. Books and stories help us see how others view the world, so we can learn from their experience. Further, books don’t cause us to escape life, they enable us to live other lives.
• Books as inspiration – self explanatory.
• Books help define and shape your identity – Life is about discovering purpose, character, and identity. Books can help you do this. Margaret Atwood via “The Handmaid’s Tale” seemed to spark a feminist identity within the author. Books are also about personal choice as the author (and I) often disagree with what experts believe is quality writing.
• Books demonstrate the Power of words – Moveable type was the greatest invention in history p 117 “No normal person had a hope of mastering more than an infinitesimal fragment, let alone the whole of what was spread before me” p. 117
• Books equal Peace. This is true in private and in public places like libraries.
• Books are a history language and life – Chaucer, Shakesphere, Austin. They track how language and the world evolves.
• Books are a higher demonstration of humanity. – people in book stores buy more from love than necessity. They are more considered and reading books is “higher up” Maslov’s hierarchy of needs – being more self-actualization than functional.
I’m a prolific book reader and have been for a few decades now. While I read frequently Lucy Mangan taught me many things I’m missing. This is invaluable – for no matter how much you know something you can always learn from others and improve. Like the author I focus on one genre more than another. She focused on fiction and I non-fiction. And like her I seldom re-read my books as I “must go on, must get on, not go backwards”. This also became an enduring policy.
Mangan helps break me out of this thinking. As she said “Adults need succour and comfort from well-worn tales at least as much as children do” and that I should re-read at least some of my books. It’s a start.
I thank her for this as what may be the most important contribution for me.
This is a very good book. It had moments of greatness. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Read
December 31, 2024I loved Bookworm when it came out. Lucy Mangan and I are of a similar age and read for similar reasons. I found so much I recognised in Bookworm and also came away from it with a juicy reading list of the things that hadn't crossed both our paths. Bookish picks up where Bookworm left off and takes us through the rest of Lucy's reading life. I meant to eke this out slowly and ended up reading it in one, giant gulp I loved it so much.
There is a lot less crossover in our reading habits here than there was in our childhood reading, but the descriptions of what reading does for her, and how she has viscerally needed it, had me nodding my head in violent agreement. Here, even with books she has read and loved that I have read and didn't, I see the why and the workings of it. This is wonderful. I got very excited when I found out that someone else loves Astrid Lindgren's Bullerby Children series as much as me and it even made me think I might pick up a Jack Reacher next time I'm in a secondhand bookshop.
There is a lot less crossover in our reading habits here than there was in our childhood reading, but the descriptions of what reading does for her, and how she has viscerally needed it, had me nodding my head in violent agreement. Here, even with books she has read and loved that I have read and didn't, I see the why and the workings of it. This is wonderful. I got very excited when I found out that someone else loves Astrid Lindgren's Bullerby Children series as much as me and it even made me think I might pick up a Jack Reacher next time I'm in a secondhand bookshop.
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