What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Looking for books about books
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Megan
(last edited Feb 13, 2014 03:58PM)
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Feb 13, 2014 03:58PM
Hi everyone! I'm looking for books about books or writing such as The Shadow of the Wind or Fahrenheit 451. All genres welcome! Thanks for the recommendations!
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I think you could find some good reads on this bookshelf of mine: Literature-themed Fiction https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Mod
Ghost Story
Night Train to Lisbon
Also check out this listopia.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
“We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.” Umberto Eco's classic The Name of the Rose
Medieval murder mystery set in an abbey and revolving around a scriptorium and library. Beautifully rendered, provocative; a romantic tragedy for anyone who loves books.
I think I'm developing a love-hate relationship with Goodreads. I love the organisation it gives me, the place to share my thoughts, the help finding books I can't remember, the fabulous readers I get to meet and all the fabulous book recommendations for books that I may have never found on my own. My hate is finding all the fabulous book recommendations. I have 249 books and growing on my Amazon wish list. I think I read about 40 books a year at best as I tend to go for history books or simply long books about 65% of the time. So at this rate I'll get through my existent wish list in 6.2 years. But of course I'll just keep adding more and more. Every time I look at the list I grow a little sadder thinking about all the amazing stories that I'll never get to read about.
Oh gosh, Kathryn, me too. My to-read list would take three years to get through even if I only read books already on it and stopped adding books entirely -- which is not likely!Without my to-read list, though, I'd never remember most of the books I want to read -- prior to GR I scribbled down titles on little pieces of paper that I promptly forgot about -- and without GR, or similar book sites, I'd never even have heard of so many of the amazing books that I've read in the last few years. Definite net positive.
It is a net positive, and having too many options falls under 1st world problems! But its the same way I feel about travel, I've spent about 3.5 years traveling out of the last 12 and all I can think about is all the places that I'll never be able to go!
Please! Let's not rush past the classics.Parnassus on Wheels
The Haunted Bookshop
You also want Montaigne and Robert Burton-- if you're really serious, that is.
p.s. my personal listopia list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5...
The Thirteenth Tale One of my favorites; esp good if you like gothic lit.Libriomancer Comic fantasy, I think?
Alphabet of Thorn
Joseph wrote: "I think you could find some good reads on this bookshelf of mine: Literature-themed Fiction https://www.goodreads.com/review/list..."There were a few on here that I was familiar with but many were new too me! Thanks for the recommendations!
Liralen wrote: "And The Uncommon Reader and The Night Bookmobile..."I've read The Uncommon Reader, and The Night Bookmobile sounds great! Thanks!
The Library at NightCan't go wrong with Alberto Manguel, also Michael DirdaBound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education and then there are several about book collecting A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books and Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World
The Eyre Affair if you want a book about books, how about a book about saving books from inside of them!
Reading from the Heart: Women, Literature, and the Search for True Love - about women and romantic fiction (not romance novels)
Book: A Novel is one I've always liked. It did the "talk to you in footnotes" thing before Jasper Fforde, IIRC.edited to say: Book is a better link.
Feliks wrote: "Please! Let's not rush past the classics.Parnassus on Wheels
The Haunted Bookshop
I also recommend the above books.
And: One for the Books
I don't think I'll read a lot of the books Joe Queenan talks about, but I did enjoy reading his book and had to laugh at the part where he talks about all the things that need doing around his house that aren't getting done due to his rather - be - reading attitude. (typing that made me glance around the room and shrug.)
Mod
84, Charing Cross Road
Booked To Die and the others in the seriesMurder Past Due and the others in the series
Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence and others in the series
Lots of good ones already mentioned. Here are a few more:Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores
Codex
The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery
The City of Dreaming Books
Misery, The Dark Half, and On Writing (maybe) by Stephen King.Some of James Rollins novels might also spark your interest, but they aren't specifically about books per say. They are historical fiction, I suppose you could say. Wonderfully written.
Megan wrote: "Liralen wrote: "And The Uncommon Reader and The Night Bookmobile..."I've read The Uncommon Reader, and The Night Bookmobile sounds great! Thanks!"
I've read them both and they're very good. However, The Night Bookmobile is a tad depressing. I won't spoil it for you by telling you how; just know that the ending is rather bittersweet.
Michele wrote: "Lots of good ones already mentioned. Here are a few more:Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores
Codex
[book:The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of th..."
Shelf Life and The City of Dreaming Books both look great. I've actually read books by Walter Moers and was impressed by his imagination and his world-building abilities.
I'm not too sure if these are the kind of books you're talking about, but When You Reach Me by Rebecca stead mentions the book A Wrinkle in Time a lot and the book Because of Mr. Terupt by rob Buyea kind of mentions other books but not too often.... Or there's Between the Lines by Jodi picoult and Samantha van leer which is about this character in a book that wants out because his life is so boring and then this girl (in the real world) can see and hear him and then they fall in love and try to find a way to get the guy out of the book. The story is told through the girls point of view, the guy's and there's chapters from the actual book the guy is stuck in. (But the story the guy is in isn't real, so I don't know if that's what your looking for or not.) sorry if those books aren't the kind you were taking about :)
Mod
Having reluctantly accompanied his academic mother and pesky younger sister to Oxford, twelve-year-old Blake Winters is at loose ends until he stumbles across an ancient and magical book, secretly brought to England in 1453 by Gutenberg's mute apprentice to save it from evil forces, and which now draws Blake into a dangerous and life-threatening quest.
Kathryn wrote: "My hate is finding all the fabulous book recommendations. I have 249 books and growing on my Amazon wish list..."Only 249?? You're doing fine, hon :)
Mod
Libraries by Candida Höfer
The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World by Jacques Bosser
I haven't read it but The End of Your Life Book ClubThis one is a reference style book but still great 1001 Books for Every Mood
This one is also not a novel, but sweet My Ideal Bookshelf
And this is a comic book series about a library, with book references in it Unshelved
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
Fiction. Bookstore, booksellers, book distribution, books and a wonderful story.
How about a novel about a novel that revolves around a stolen, ill-fated play, that is itself stolen — and turned into an ill-fated movie? (Warning: Shameless self-promotion.)The Scottish Movie
Mod
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Lethal Legacy
Booked To Die (first in a series)
Nicholas Basbanes has written four or five books on books and libraries, including A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, Patience & Fortitude: Wherein a Colorful Cast of Determined Book Collectors, Dealers, and Librarians Go About the Quixotic Task of Preserving a Legacy, and A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World.Alphabet of Thorn is about a book written in a strange code, as is The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery (though I have to admit the latter one suffers from a lackluster translation). The Book of Three is about a book that can tell what will come to pass. The Book of Skulls is about an ancient manuscript found by four college students and the mystery to which it leads them.
How to Read and Why is about (duh) how to read :)
Quite a few of Jorge Luis Borges' stories are about books, libraries and other stories; the one that leaps to mind is The Library of Babel -- try Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings or Collected Fictions.
Dangerous Liaisons is written in the form of letters.
Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian
Mod
The narrator is writing her dissertation on unwed mothers in literature. She lives with her gay brother and his boyfriend. Someone has given her an unpublished novel written in the 50s, but never submitted for publication because it is about the taboo subject of unwed mothers and gay men. The frame story with the narrator takes place in 2011, then the text of the unpublished novel which begins in 1929 is inserted, then the novel finishes in 2011 again.
Mod
See post 20.
What about The Princess Bride by William Goldman?The "abridged" version of a fictional book. It's a classic. :D
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jasper Fforde (other topics)Jasper Fforde (other topics)
Neal Stephenson (other topics)
Stephen King (other topics)
Tim Leong (other topics)
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