Books About Reading That Lead to More Books on OyList

Items25The creator’s order

184, Charing Cross Road (1970) 8.4/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1970Hanff’s requests to a London bookseller are wonderfully particular about the kinds of books she wants and the editions she can afford. The affection grows out of that practical exchange, which makes older English essays and nonfiction sound like things to enjoy rather than shelves to salute. No…0
2Ex Libris (1998) 8.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1998Fadiman moves from the peculiar habits of her literary family to writers such as Coleridge and Orwell, with the pleasure of a reader following a promising digression. The essays are short enough to let a name lodge in your mind before you move on. You do not need the family’s formidable background…0
3The child that books built (2002) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2002Spufford returns to childhood encounters with The Wind in the Willows, Narnia and other imagined worlds to ask what reading was doing for him. His remembered excitement makes a return to children’s fiction feel substantial. Familiarity with those books adds recognition, but the memoir explains the…0
4The year of reading dangerously (2014) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2014A busy working father decides to confront the books he has meant to read, and the ones he has pretended to have read. Miller’s project gives the recommendations a lived context: time, embarrassment, resistance and eventual delight. You can follow without completing his reading programme first. Pick…0
5Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) 7.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2003Nafisi’s account brings the work of Austen, Fitzgerald, James and Nabokov into conversation with her students’ lives in Iran. The interpretations give a reason to seek the novels themselves, rather than treating their reputations as sufficient. Prior reading enriches the discussion but is not a…0
6The Possessed (2010) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2010Batuman’s Russian-literature adventures combine actual reading with the wonderfully awkward behaviour of people devoted to it. Tolstoy, Isaac Babel and Goncharov become invitations to follow a curiosity. You need no Russian and no completed shelf of classics, although knowing one of the writers…0
7The end of your life book club (2012) 7.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2012A mother and son share books during her treatment for terminal cancer. Their different responses make a reading suggestion feel like the beginning of a conversation, with works such as Crossing to Safety and Gilead among the possibilities. No prior reading is required, and the book supplies plenty…0
8My life with Bob (2017) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2017Bob is Pamela Paul’s Book of Books, a record of reading that becomes a way of remembering the life around it. The range runs from Sweet Valley High to Anna Karenina and Catch-22, which is part of the charm. No common starting shelf is assumed. This is the natural choice for anyone tempted to write…0
9The Unexpected Professor (2014)Published 1 Jan 2014Carey’s route from grammar school into an academic life is also an informal introduction to the English literature that held his attention. His recollections of discovering poems and novels supply a human setting for the judgements. You can enjoy the memoir without having studied the same course.…0
10Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life (2017) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2017Yiyun Li reads writers’ letters, diaries and fiction as a way of approaching difficult questions about language and selfhood. William Trevor and Katherine Mansfield are concrete paths onwards. No acquaintance with them is required, but this is a searching, sometimes demanding memoir rather than an…0