Readers are a unique species. They are a strange mixture of recluse and social butterfly. At times, they spend hours in seeming solitude, accompanied only by a sheaf of glued together pages. But simply ask about the reader’s latest literary adventure and you will unlock a torrent of thoughts and ideas that is often difficult, if not impossible, to stop. Beware gathering a group of this curious species together and introduce the topic of say, contemporary literature, or (heaven forbid) ebooks. The ensuing flood of conversation will be almost overwhelming.
At some point, some reader somewhere had the brilliant idea to set down all of these thoughts (or as many could fit into a 100,000 word manuscript) down onto paper for other readers to, well, read. And thus was born a new art form: the book about books. Reading these books is often like going to your favorite “secret” spot and discovering the remnants of dozens of people just like you who love this spot as well: initials carved into trees, tiny treasures buried in the ground, pictures tumbling in the wind. It can be disturbing—a sanctuary invaded—or it can be an epiphany: you are not alone.
These books often remind me that reading is not just a solitary activity. Each book you read ties you to a dozen, one hundred, a thousand, a million people who have all read the same words. These books celebrate the love of reading, through personal accounts of readers, recommendations for new books (that currency of the reading community), or new tidbits of information you never knew about classic or famous books.
A book that does the latter in rare form is Once Again to Zelda, which tells the stories behind the dedications for many well known books including The Brothers Karamazov, Valley of the Dolls, Atlas Shrugged, The Bell Jar, and The Great Gatsby to name a few. Most people probably don’t give much thought to a dedication, often skipping over it entirely to get to the “good parts”. But as the book’s author, Marlene Wagman-Geller tells us, the dedication may be the most revealing part. And in her book, she plays “dedication detective” to uncover the personal stories behind what is often the most enigmatic page of a book.
In the category of book recommendations, every year brings out a new tome purporting to tell you exactly what books you should read to be cultured, become a writer, be as smart as a professor, and a dozen other claims. But perhaps the most prolific is the Book Lust series by librarian Nancy Pearl. The original book was organize in a fun, somewhat haphazard way partially by genre and partly by categories such as First Novels, countries, and authors named Alice. The series has expanded to include a journal, Book Crush for kids and teens, and Book Lust to Go for travel reading.
But perhaps my favorite recent release in the books about books category is Bound to Last, a collection edited by Sean Manning. The book is partially in answer to the ever-present ebook debate; celebrating the physical act of reading as much as the mental. The collection contains stories from thirty authors writing about their “most cherished book”. For Anthony Swofford, it was the copy of Albert Camus’ The Stranger that traveled with him during his tour of duty in the Persian Gulf, which led to his bestselling memoir, Jarhead. For Joyce Maynard, it was her father’s bible that he read every day. And for Shahriar Mandanipour, it was the copy of Das Kapital that was a crime to possess. Each of these books as a physical object have meaning to their owners beyond the words printed on the page; they are totems of memory.
These books and others are important reminders that books will never “die” as long as there are writers willing to put their words on paper and publishers willing to bring those words to stores. Because whether they enjoy print or digital, readers are not an endangered species.