Rate this book

My Ideal Bookshelf (2012)

by Thessaly La Force(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0316200905 (ISBN13: 9780316200905)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Little, Brown and Company

review 1: This is a "coffee table" book. I think I'm the only person I know who enjoys reading coffee table books! At first I thought the book was a collection of short essays by writers about the books that made a difference in their lives. There were essays by Michael Chabon, Junot Diaz, Dave Eggers, Stephenie Myer,, David Sedaris and others. Each one identified their important books and explained WHY they made a difference to them. However, there were also numerous essays by actors, artists, chefs, photographers, etc. who told about their favorite books, but, apparently not being writers themselves, were unaware that readers would want to know WHY they selected the books they did. Maybe if the editor had required this information I would have enjoyed it more, but it appeared ther... moree were no requirements. By mid-point I was just jumping to the read the essays of the writers which were quite enjoyable.
review 2: I like books about books. I have found a lot of really great hidden gems that would have been missed otherwise. This one intrigued me because it included some of my favorite authors like Michael Chabon, Chuck Klosterman, Miranda July, Mark Bittman, and David Sedaris; and some non-authors like Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Patti Smith and Tony Hawk. My only criticism is that in most cases the writers only elaborate on two or three of the books in there much larger list. I really wanted more about why each book was chosen, and what it meant to them. Most likely it was an editorial decision to do this, in order to pay more heed to the artwork, which is nice, but if you have a book of authors writing about great books, and other authors, that should be the meat of it, right? less

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