There's nothing better than reading, which Bob Gottlieb has done a lot of! Terrific memoir of a life spent editing, publishing, writing, and reading. Gottlieb also has an enormous talent for friendship. Really loved entering his world through this marvelous book. ( )

Robert Gottlieb is not only an avid reader but also a great editor and a leading enthusiast for good books. His memoir is a delight to read as it is filled with fascinating stories about the publishing life. ( )

I loved almost all of this book. AVID READER is a nearly perfect read for old book nerds like me. In the cover photo, Gottlieb looks a lot like a young Woody Allen, which is completely irrelevant, but I thought this every time I picked the book up, so ... just sayin'.

Gottlieb is probably one of the most well-read authors I have ever read. An only child of two avid readers, he learned to read by age four from his maternal grandfather reading to him, and his love affair with books continues to this day, and he is 86.

After his graduation from Columbia, Gottlieb got on at Simon & Schuster and progressed to editor. Then he took over at the very prestigious Knopf, and then to editorship of the New Yorker, then back to Knopf, where he has been ever since, now semi-retired. Along the way he has worked with some of the brightest literary lights of the past sixty years - Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Barbara Tuchman, Harold Brodkey, LeCarre, Alice Munro, and on and on, as well as a host of lesser-known writers, many of whom I have read. There is, of course, a veritable deluge of name-dropping in a memoir like this, and by God, I loved it! I felt like I was walking through a library of books I've read and loved from childhood into old age. (Gottlieb was an Albert Payson Terhune fan as a kid too.)

I could gush on about all the associations Gottlieb's stories brought back, but I won't. I just kinda wish I could sit and talk books and authors with this old guy. The only part I skimmed here was the chapter on his fascination and association with ballet. I'm probably just too dumb to appreciate that. But the books! The authors! LOVED all of that. And in his reflecting back on all of it in the final chapter, "Living," he comes up with a perfect closing line -

"And, yes, the end may very well be hard, but perhaps fate will be kind, and at least let me keep on reading for a while."

Perfect. Very highly recommended, especially for book lovers.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

I enjoyed this memoir from Robert Gottlieb, editor and book reviewer. It added several books to my to-read list. ( )

Inside baseball. Too much of it. Names of his friends/associates keep coming like a gatling gun. How could he be so intimate with so many friends and give short shrift to his son? Didn't learn much about the process of book editing. No mention of audio books or e-books. Shoddy work. ( )