by Sarah Statz Cords
If you couldn’t tell by now, I am a complete sucker for books about books. Each month as I take a wander through the “New Nonfiction” titles listed in my local public library’s catalog, I make sure to keep careful watch for each new book about books (or reading) that I can find.
This month I stumbled across Hallie Ephron’s pleasingly chunky little book titled The Bibliophile’s Devotional: 365 Days of Literary Classics. The book follows a simple enough format; for each day of the year, a suitable book “classic” is listed and described. Ephron does a good job of matching days and seasons to associated reading; for example, the classic listed for April 15 was Andre Dubus III’s novel House of Sand and Fog, which was about, appropriately enough, a house that was wrongly seized for tax violations (with tragic events ensuing). Likewise, Ray Bradbury’s autumnal classic Something Wicked This Way Comes is described on the page for October 26; the December 25 entry is Dylan Thomas’s title A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Nonfiction titles are also included; David McCullough’s historical biography John Adams is listed on January 20; Mary Karr’s memoir The Liar’s Club on March 18.
Each day provides a title and author, a quote from the book, a short synopsis, and a quote about the book or author from another source. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable little book to peruse, and I’d highly recommend just leaving it out in your staff break room for a while (for fun, if for no other reason; I’ll bet you a fiver that everyone who sits down to their break at least pages through to their birthday to see what title is recommended). This is also a book that could prove handy when creating displays or reading lists–want to come up with a list of “Readable Classics”? Look no further. Looking for date- or season-related displays? In spring, check out the entries for March and April; for fall, peruse September and October.
Ephron is also the author of the fun reference book 1001 Books for Every Mood, and is a book review columnist for the Boston Globe newspaper.
CarolK,
You’re not the only one! Whenever I’m in a used bookstore I always look for the shelf of “books on books”–I loved finding the older reference books on this subject too! I hope you enjoy this one.
And I thought I was the only one who loved these books that lead us to other books!
My shelf full of these will soon be joined by one more.