Pamela Paul

"Books gnaw at me from around the edges of my life, demanding more time and attention. I am always left hungry." (191)

I enjoy a lot of books. I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again, but I can find something redeeming in almost every book.

But I don't say this often: this book spoke directly to my soul.

This book is for anyone who loves books. (Where my bibliophiles at?!) For anyone who has ever had to defend buying new books when they still have unread books on their shelves. For show more anyone who has ever stockpiled books, obsessively collecting and loath to purge, like a dragon defending its hoard. For anyone who has ever desperately tried to get a friend to read a book you love, and then sat on tenterhooks waiting anxiously for their response. For anyone who is admittedly a bit of a book snob. For anyone who grew up escaping into infinite worlds through pages and spines.

Pamela Paul is the Editor of the New York Times Book Review, and altogether manager of all things books over at the NYT. She also is a celebrated author, even before this book was released. But I didn't really care about any of those. Paul wrote this book about her Bob, which is what she calls her "Book of Books." When she was 17, she started keeping a "diary" of every book that she read, with a date (by month), the author, and the title. Plus a sort of rating system. [SIDE NOTE: I did something similar to this for...probably 10 years until I discovered Goodreads. It was much more simplistic - no date, only author and book title, but I carried that sheaf of loose-leaf pages as it grew in the back of my current journals for a decade.

Since the fall of 1988, for the majority of her life, Bob has been there with her. It has traveled with her. It has been through heartbreak and triumph and children being born with her. She uses the concept of the Bob, and her general love of reading, to write a memoir of her life. She addresses required reading, books that change your life, heroines (especially as a woman, heroines in books are infinitely important), the love for a book as analogous to the love for a person, making book recommendations (and what that really implies), about reading with her own children, tearjerkers (where she relates the death of her dad), and finally addresses the big question: Why read?

Why read is actually a question I ask myself often. I'm not quite sure how I got to be such a voracious reader. I do think it started with being read to and reading at an early age. But I also think that, after that "indoctrination" phase, I have been inclined toward reading for a number of reasons. The initial reason was to escape my often-less-than-ideal home life. It's the same reason I did theatre. To abscond into someone else's story, to get to experience being someone else for a time, helped me survive an incredibly trying period in my life.

That has morphed pretty seamlessly into this moment in my life where I still read to escape in a way, but for different reasons. I read to become more empathetic, to experience diversity from points of view I can't really get in other ways, to be informed, to be entertained, to be titillated. To enjoy the symbiotic relationship between a book and a reader. To retain the tradition of storytelling, passed down from the pre-history days of oral storytelling. To love a thing that may have existed for centuries before me, and that may exist for centuries after me; a thing that will endure much longer than many other earthly things.

There's not much more I can say other than what I've already said, and that, if you're a bibliophile, you MUST read this book. It will have you feeling so warm and tingly and nostalgic for the books you've loved. BUT I do want to share just a few quotes that were strikingly poignant for me personally:

We in this latter group like to own books, and, with our constant demands and high expectations, we're the worst—preferring some editions over others, having firm points of view on printings and cover designs. We're particular, and we're greedy. We want an unreasonable number of books and we don't like to throw them away. Some of us develop an almost hoardish fear around letting go of a book, even after it's been read an reread. (39)

This is every reader's catch-22: the more you read, the more you realize you haven't read; the more you yearn to read more, the more you understand that you have, in fact, read nothing. There is no way to finish, and perhaps that shouldn't be the goal. (40)

Bookish girls tend to mark phases of their lives by periods of intense character identification. (92) PREACH!

Whenever I travel, I try to pack at least three times as many books as can be expected to read, so as to always have on hand something that fits my mood at a given moment. I would load these books in my backpack, and then, unless they were truly disappointing, I would haul them back. (107) Though I was resistant to it at first, my Kindle has helped with this overpacking of books problem immensely...though I still pack probably two times as many books as I'll need...

In short, read this book. show less

There is hardly a page in this book that doesn't have something underlined. For me, someone who is so anal-retentive about books that even my non-reader friends tease me about it, this is a huge deal. But, if you're a lifelong reader like I am, there are so many wonderful, insightful, yes-I-do-this-too, it's-not-just-me kind of things that after two chapters I just had to break out a pencil and start marking this up. It's a joy! I took my time reading this, and even so, it seemed too short. show more I've already purchased a hard copy and given two copies as gifts for no reason, that's how much I love this book. Pamela's sharp, self-deprecating wit, and her perfect wording for teenage/young 20's angst is so outstanding. How can one person be so specific in talking about books and her life that it feels universal? That's the kind of bookish, readerly magic that you'll find in these pages. Simply wonderful, and the best thing I've read so far this year. show less

Dear Pamela Paul,
Please come and live with me and be my literary big sister.
I am,
Yours devotedly in reading.

No, for real. Every reader must read this book. Pamela's descriptions of the joys (and sorrows) of reading are beautiful. She is exquisitely thoughtful in connecting the books she records in Bob (her Book of Books, in which she lists everything she's read since age 17) to her life, or to her reflections of the life she was living at the time she read a particular book. She also show more discusses many of her travels, giving them equally thoughtful and literary treatment. Seriously, this is the book about reading that I wish I could have written. show less

How did I not know about this New York Times Book Review column before now?!?! The series started in 2012 and features a new individual each time. Sometimes it’s an author, like David Sedaris, Neil Gaiman, or Jhumpa Lahiri; other times it’s an actor like Emma Thompson or Bryan Cranston. No matter who it is there are answers filled with a love of books and the joy they hold within their covers.

Each person is asked questions about their reading habits, favorite books, etc. We learn show more what’s on their nightstand, what they loved to read as a child and what books have made them laugh or cry. This sounds like a simple enough Q&A series, but it’s the eloquent answers that make it so wonderful. Keep in mind that the interviewees are usually highly intelligent people and accomplished authors. Their answers are sometimes beautiful insights into who they are as a person.

“The joy of reading is in the rereading; this is where you get to know the world and characters and deep and rewarding fashion.”

I loved reading a few of the Q&As at a time. I could easily dip into the book at any point and then set it back down. The book itself includes an illustration of the individual being interviewed, which was a great addition. It also has a few compiled lists sprinkled in between the interviews with compiled answers on different topics. For example there’s a sidebar with half a dozen author’s thoughts on reading James Joyce.

One of my favorite parts was compiling my own list of books based on the authors' recommendations. There are so many new books that I’m planning to check out. I also loved seeing their guilty admittances of what they haven't read yet or what they didn’t like. It was reassuring to realize even the most incredible authors have books that just don’t work for them.

I was surprised by the number of overlaps between interviews. There were some common themes that kept popping up in different interviews. Many authors cited A Wrinkle in Time or the Encyclopedia Brown series as a childhood favorite. There were also quite a few that said The Grapes of Wrath, Hilary Mantel, St. Aubyn’s Melrose novels, and Proust were wonderful and they couldn’t stand reading Ulysses.

BOTTOM LINE: I just loved these interviews. I felt like I was part of a wide-reaching community of book lovers that rises above profession or background. I was introduced to new authors I will definitely be trying soon and I will keep my eye out for this column in the future!

“Every time I watch the curtain come down on even a halfway decent production of a Shakespeare play and feel a little sorrowful that I'll never know the man, or any manner such warm intelligence.” Ian McEwan

**I received a review copy for an honest review. show less