For The Love Of Books is the perfect gift for your picky book-loving friend. It’s the sort they’ll read over and over–for fun, as well as to learn.
It was there in my Kindle for months before I started to read. At once I realized that it was the perfect match for me! I had already been doing my own research on writers, book series, and events that triggered classic stories. This work opened a treasure chest of details to keep me going.
Graham Tarrant has gathered priceless facts and ‘did-you-know’ bits. I finished reading with the sense that I’d been given a crash course on literary history.
You finish reading this book with the sense that you’ve gone through volumes of classics, biographies, and newspaper articles. The only downside is realizing there are so many books we’ve yet to read.
Why can’t I skip bedtime for reading time?
Which Tasty Morsels?
For The Love Of Books features everything to hook the bibliophile. It talks about authors’ disputes and the (mostly) indirect swings they aimed at each other. These were done via interviews–but sometimes their books featured characters suspiciously similar to their rivals.
It provides juicy details on literary romances. If you want to learn about husband-wife cowriters, there are such romantic duos. If you prefer the dangerous, there are love affairs that authors carried out with colleagues. You’ll also find that some of them preferred the writer-hermit lifestyle to a family setup.
Are you curious about the origin of the mystery novel? A chapter has been dedicated to mysteries and thrillers. There are many famous female mystery writers, Agatha Christie being the best known. You’ll read about spy novels that were based on the authors’ experiences.
Of course, there is the melancholy: there are some authors who passed away before they could finish their work. I’m not talking about Dickens with Edward Drood or Jane Austen with Sanditon. No, this is a threat that all authors face! I can’t imagine anything sadder than an unfinished manuscript on my bedside when my last day comes.
Fellow bookworm, you’ll find everything here to satisfy your appetite.
“What Do I Read Next?”
For The Love Of Books will make you feel enlightened. You’ll fall in love with the literary world and its history–but you might also find yourself in a panic. You won’t know what to read next! There are so many titles mentioned; it might depend on which category you’d like to explore.
Do you want to read the first detective story by Edgar Allen Poe? Called The Murders in the Rue Morgue, it’s said to have inspired future “career” mystery writers. Maybe you’d like to know which writers produced their best work under the influence of alcohol. If you dedicate yourself to the It’s A Fact tidbits, you will still learn much. In two or three sentences, Tarrant delights us with history to mull over and laugh at.
Behind every great story is an even greater story. That is my motto, and Graham Tarrant has written the book to feed my obsessions: books and history, history and books. I am grateful for this gem, this must-have for book lovers, and the material it has given me to continue my research in these realms I adore.
Mariella Hunt 