A Love of Reading: The Second Collection August 3, 2007

Adams, Robert.  A love of reading: the second collection, more reviews of contemporary fiction.  New York:  McClelland & Steward Ltd., 2003. 

In A Love of Reading: The Second Collection, literary critic Robert Adams presents the reader with reviews of 14 books.  It is evident when reading the reviews that these are books that he is passionate about, and has essentially fallen in love with.  Comparable to having a short english lesson, Adams leaves the reader with an explanation of the material, a rapturous literary description, historical reference.  Adams’ reviews work to sway the reader to read the books.

Adams is honest about the books, and portrays them in a way which depicts his passion and interest in fine literature, but points out the most compelling features of the books.  Adams’ short essays span approximately 10-15 pages, and provide the reader with an intriguing, insightful and indepth assessment of each of the books listed in the index. 

I would recommend this book for someone interested in reading any of the 14 books covered by Adams.  This book would  be a great readers’ advisory tool, as Adams includes the publication date of the materials reviewed, as well as the publisher and place of publication.  In addition to the full bibliographic information, Adams also provides the reader with some background information on the author and an extensive review of the text. 

Contents:

1.  Alias Grace Margaret Atwood

2.  The Hiding Place Trezza Azzopardi

3.  Disgrace J.M. Coetzee

4.  Cold Mountain Charles Frazier

5.  The Dress Lodger Sheri Holman

6.  The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro

7. A Gesture Life Chang-rae Lee

8.  No Great Mischief Alistair MacLeod

9. Fima Amos Oz

10. American Pastoral Philip Roth

11. White Teeth Zadie Smith

12.  Felicia’s Journey William Trevor

13. The Stone Carvers Jane Urquhart

14.  Aunt Julia and the Script-Writer Mario Vargas Llosa

Book Lust and More Book Lust — Pearl, Nancy August 3, 2007

Avid readers tend to be interested in other people’s opinions about books, whether it is a qualified opinion or not.  People are interested to know what everyone else is reading, and what it was about a particular book that someone liked.  I think many readers would enjoy a book like More Book Lust, (Nancy Pearl).  Pearl is a librarian who clearly defines her book tastes in annotation format in both Book Lust and the sequel More Book Lust.  After reading More Book Lust, I can’t imagine not finding suggestions here to suit almost any reader. Not only is there a thorought and clear index, where you can search for authors and titles, but it is absolutely ’browser’ friendly.  The only drawback is that Pearl did not include the publication dates. 

I would recommend this tool for people interested in doing their own readers’ advisory.  The table of contents is thorough and is subdivided into useful categories. 

In reading Nancy Pearl’s More Book Lust  (2005), I found one quotation in the introduction to be particularly interesting.  Nancy Pearl said “in addition to being an addicted reader, I have to confess that I am a promiscusous reader as well.”  (ix)  Pearl, like many other readers will read anything, so long as the characters are well developed, and it is well written. 

Looking on my book shelf, I have not only those books that are on my husband’s top 200 list, but mine as well, and combined, these materials make a mountain of resources.  Every now and again I take books from the bookshelf that are not mine, and being, what Pearl calls a “promiscuous reader”, I read and enjoy the books that are outside of my typical ‘genre’.  As I write this, I look at the bookshelf, which is piled high with books both fiction and nonfiction, and look at the wicker baskets surrounding the shelf which are spilling over with books. 

I will read basically anything, and I will definitely look to Nancy Pearl for recommendations in the future. Not only does Pearl appear excited about the books she is talking about, but seems even more thrilled to be telling others about them.  Though this RA doesn’t involve a 2-minute interview, she has about 2-minutes to get a reader to read her recommendation.  As well, another interesting aspect of this book, is that she encourages readers to email her suggestions about books, which makes the reader feel involved in the process of recommending books. 

Pearl, Nancy.  More Book Lust:  1000 new reading recommendations for every mood, moment and reason.  Seattle:  Sasquatch Books, 2005.