Oh bliss, oh joy! As soon as I spotted a new memoir by English author Lucy Mangan, about her love of books, I knew this was a book I just had to own. It is Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives. And I read it too fast, not wanting it to end, and yet longing to know what she would say next. It follows on from Bookworm, her memoir about childhood reading (which I wrote about in a previous issue of this newsletter), and takes Lucy through adolescence, university, marriage, having a son, and losing her beloved Dad. It showed the joy, comfort, solace, and absolute necessity of having books in one’s life, and was moving, funny, and deeply reassuring as it made my own reading addiction seem so normal.
I did not agree with all of Lucy’s comments, but she always made me think about why I wanted to defend books she disliked and which I loved, and she has left me with a long reading and rereading list. She discusses the occasional need to cull one’s book collection, and she explains why reading is so vital for the sanity of we bookworms. I especially loved her chapter about the building of her new library. After buying a country home in Norfolk, Lucy sets about converting a room that will hold her collection of at least 10,000 books. A carpenter builds shelves, she chooses paint colours (green for the shelves, yellow for the door) and waits for the paint to dry, so she can set about placing books carefully on the shelves. You have to love a woman whose choice of very first book to put proudly in its position is Jane Austen’s Emma. But then she rearranges, as all true book lovers do, and faces the problem of where to put books when your shelf space for that genre has run out.
I LOVED this book. I want to see Lucy’s library, I want to sit down with her and talk favourites, I want to argue with her about the writers she dislikes and ask why she left out others, and I want to revel in the company of a truly addicted book addict. I can’t do that – I don’t think she’d want me intruding on her precious reading time – but I can read and reread her wonderful book. Bookish is a treat you should buy immediately.
Have you already read Bookish? Or did you read Bookworm? Let me know your thoughts in a comment.
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Susan
I also loved this book & I have enjoyed many of the titles she mentions (an English Lit degree helped) including the Jack Reacher novels. My heart sang when I read his name. My book club friends laugh about my addiction to Jack Reacher & there he was in Bookish. Brilliant. Ten years ago I culled my library; it was brutish. I shall never attempt that again. More recently we re carpeted the house & the decisions about replacing the books & in what order; hellish.
Susannah Fullerton
Oh, culling one’s books is so hard! And then when you get them in the right order, there’s no more shelf space for a new book in that series, and so you have to re-order all over again. The challenges of being a book addict!
Malvina
I’ve read both Lucy’s books and also thoroughly enjoyed them. Her dry humour and her take no prisoners stance on some things does resonate. And the books! All glorious, all fabulous books to enjoy and reread. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.