Customer Reviews

Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a bit dissappointed with this book. I read the great reviews that it but the book let me down.

I didn't enjoy the catergories that the book had. For example the book has a topic of Bomb Makers (makers of the atomic bomb) and lists 8 ( too many) books. She also has a Canadian Fiction section There is a Cat Crazy Section with over 10 books. I felt that her catagoies needed more help. I also didn't like the fact that there really were not any list. You just can't open the book to a page and look at a list of of 10=15 books. You have to read the paragraph. The books are underlined but the author's are not. I didn't like this format. I would of preferred that she write her comments on the Middle East, for example, and then list her 10-15 books. She has 5 sections of Africa in one section and a 6th somewhere else.
The topics are in alpahbetical order so you have Belgium, Montana, Africa in different sections. My own Private DUI is under MY. Passage to India is under P not I.

Anyway, this book wasn't my style. So I wouldn't recommend it to my friends...

I checked the sections on science writing and
science fiction, two areas I am very familiar
with, and found many selections to be poor to
mediocre. The author did not seem to be able
to distinguish trash from titles of value.

Any list of book recommendations that gives Barbara Pym her own category is likely to rate highly with me. I very much enjoyed reading "Book Lust" and now have a very long list of books that I want to tackle. While some of Pearls suggestions were, in my opinion, duds, that's just part of the fun. On the one hand, Book Lust has led me to read the works of writers I would never have chosen for myself, such as Percival Everett--I enjoyed his novel "Erasure". On the other hand, Book Lust has helped me to find more books in the style that I like most. I particularly enjoyed Elizabeth Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont"--before reading Book Lust I had never heard of Elizabeth Taylor. I've recommended Book Lust to several people, prompting someone to present me with the Nancy Pearl action figure (complete with shushing action) as a gift.

_Book Lust_ was so much fun to read! I made a lot of additions to my "To Be Read" list (already long enough!) This book had so much to offer, and so many great categories. They are unlike any other Book Recommendation list. Among the other highlights, I liked her Rule of 50: Give a book 50 pages to prove itself. If you do not want to go on, don't! There are plenty of other books to read!

Thank you Ms. Pearl for sharing your great amount of book knowledge with us!

As an avid reader of fiction, I find that I frequently exhaust all the books by a particular author and am left wondering what to read next. Book Lust definitely helped me to identify some new authors and books to try. It is broken down into 175 different categories; rather than be based on mood as the title suggests, the categories are mostly based on very specific genres--eg, African American Fiction (further divided into male and female), Canadian Fiction, Memoirs, etc. (some categories are given particularly amusing names, such as Elvis on My Mind, Gear Up for Gardening, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame). Particular authors are also highlighted various "Too Good to Miss" entries. You will certainly find plenty of reading suggestions, but don't expect much detail about each individual book--at times the books are simply listed. Also, you may be disappointed to find that some of your own favorites do not make the list (no Maeve Bincy under Irish Fiction?). Overall, however, this is a worthwhile read for booklovers like myself.

Books about books are the most wonderful things, because the obsession never ends. The author is a librarian who grew up in a dysfunctional household and turned to her books. She found the joy of reading in her childhood years, like most of us have, and has very eclectic tastes. I love the way she breaks up the books:
Intriguing Novels
Wild Life
Zen Buddism and Meditation
Ecofiction
Elvis on my Mind
Bird Brains
Black Humor
and many many more! Each section recommends and gives a tiny synopsis of the book you would be reading! I have to write down all of the ones I'm interested in so I can make yet another list!

Nancy Pearl is, quite simply, one of us. She loves books, the places they take you and the stories they tell. While Pearl is a librarian, her "book lust" comes from childhood and beyond.

I can't imagine not liking this book, and that's something I rarely say because I'm well aware that my taste in reading often does not match what's out there (says the woman who really hated THE DA VINCI CODE). The omnivorous Pearl offers hundreds of fiction and nonfiction titles, enough to keep any reader busy for years: small chapters with titles like "This Will Mean Nothing to You" (books about the concept of zero and black holes) and "100 Good Reads, Decade by Decade" (comments on authors "too good to miss," like Mark Kurlansky and George MacDonald Fraser), books on 9/11, good trial novels, Japanese fiction, books about books, paleontology books, and a list of great first novels.

I have found all sorts of new titles to read and enjoy since buying this book; it's worth having just to discover the wonderful ELLA MINNOW PEA, a book I had heard about but not read. All the chapters are fairly short, with anywhere from five to fifty titles listed, all written by a knowledgeable and accessible author who is a fan of reading. Pearl isn't an expert in all fields, obviously, and there are some "weak" categories, but she's available by email and anxious to hear about titles she might have overlooked.

She misses some categories. In my own "special collections," I came up with "quilting" --- not how-to books but fascinating ones about unique quilts, like the AIDS quilt, quilts designed for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, quilts that figured in the Underground Railroad), 1960s history books about Vietnam and the peace movement, illustrated children's books (I collect books illustrated by Caldecott medallists Leo and Diane Dillon) and books about disability, like NO MORE STARES.

However, it's amazing what is included; that Pearl has the time to read and work a full-time job is truly remarkable (she is the head of the Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library). I have heard her on the radio talking about books and she just seems to be everywhere. She has read books about subjects I never even thought about reading.

I live in Seattle and I've known Nancy Pearl for years. She's my idea of the model librarian: enthusiastic and open-minded (although she does have one flaw --- she dislikes one of my favorite authors. And no, I won't tell who it is since I've found some of this author's later works to be tedious). But finding someone who knows about your favorite book or genre, or who can speak smartly about something you really should read, is my ideal. Since September, I've read BOOK LUST three times, each time marking several pages with those handy little "book darts" that clip onto a page. Many of the books have been worth the time.

Recently, I emailed Nancy to complain that her library (harumph) did not have a title she mentioned in the book. Didn't they realize they were obligated to have multiple copies? She told me that that title was out of print, so I'm thinking maybe there should be a "Nancy Pearl" imprint set up so that the books she talks about would be available again.

I hope that I'll discover or rediscover more books the next ten times I read BOOK LUST. And maybe there will be a BOOK LUST II, which will contain categories Pearl might have missed the first time as well as new authors "too good to miss" (more women writers, please!) Oh yeah, and the author is the model for the "Librarian Action Figure" (as seen on CNN!) that came out just about the same time as the book did in late 2003.

--- Reviewed by Andi Shechter

A Christmas present well worth while. Nancy Pearl, a Seattle librarian, and local NPR celebrity where she discusses books, has
written a book that is recommended reading for every mood, moment and reason. She has organized these books into 175 useful,creative and humorous lists. These lists are quite specific and the Table of Contents lists them in alphabetical order. The one critique is that not enough information is given about the books, but maybe that was her intent. Just maybe she wants us to find out that information for ourselves.

I have gone through each list and found enough books that interest me to give me reading material for the next couple of years. I have purchased several.

Some of my favorites are:

Action Heroines-the usual VI Warshawski and Kinsey Milhorne but several new ones like Susan Van Meter and Paul Flint.

Adventure by the Book- Fiction and Non-fiction-Huckleberry Finn and National Geographic.

Hamilton Basso: Too Good To Miss-New Orleans Southern writer like "View From Pompeii's Head".

Bird Brains- books for and by birders

Fathers and Daughters and Fathers and Sons-Solomon's Daughter and Gambler's Rose

First Lines Too Remember-"First I had to get his body into the boat".

First Novels-Virgin Suicides, Stern Men, Biggest Elvis

The Islamic World-Islam: A Short History

The Moon's My Destination-Apollo- Epic Journey to the Moon

Shrinks and Shrinkees-I Never Promised You A Rose garden

Three Hanky Reads-A Lesson Before Dying

Texas, A Lone Star State of Mind-The Last Picture Show

Zero: This Will Mean Nothing To You-The Hole in the Universe

All together, 256 pages of books organized into themes that make sense. I really liked this book. I found it light reading, but full of great information.I will use this as a reference book for the times when I need a book of a particular theme, or a need for a book I can't quite put my finger on.

If you are just starting out on a reading life, this book is for you. Or, if you are looking for something to read, but don't know what will strike your fancy, this book is for you. A book for everyone, for any mood or for every mood. prisrob

Sometimes when you are in a reading slump, this is a great
book to use as a reference guide to find something interesting
or recommended by the author to read.

The author catagorizes books into many different catagories and then she recommends the books in those catagories. Some are very different and some are common.

My "to be read book" just got alot bigger after reading this book.

This is one of the best tools I have ever come across for the serious reader. Particularly for someone like me who is always on the search for new titles to read as if my TBR pile isn't already teetering on the brink of collapse. The most amazing thing about this book is how comprehensive a guide this is. I can't think of a category that Ms. Pearl missed and I enjoyed the "groups" that she put her titles in. I read it straight through and now intend to keep it close to dip into time and again. This is one of the best gifts you could give to the book lover who has "everything".