Books and Magic: reading suggestions
For a few weeks now, my online writing workshop about books and their magic has been opened. I’ve had the pleasure of taking a few writers and writers-to-be on a very bookish adventure. While I prepared the workshop, I thought a lot about stories I’d read featuring books in all their forms, and I thought I might as well share my list with you! Please note that books followed by a * are ones I’ve read. Feel free to ask me about them in a comment (two ** indicate the books I’ve loved). The others have been recommended here and there on the internet.
I know there would be many more titles to add to this list, but I wanted to keep it manageable and mix together books I’ve read and books I’m hoping to read.
Basbanes, Nicholas A. : A Gentle Madness : Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, 1995.
Bivald, Katarina : The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, 2013.*
Borges, Jorge Luis : The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory, 1975.*
Bradbury, Ray : The Illustrated Man, 1951.*
Bradbury, Ray : Farenheit 451, 1953.*
Byatt, A.S. : The Children's Book, 2009.
Clarkson, Sarah : Book Girl, 2018.
Colgan, Jenny : The Bookshop on the Corner, 2016.
Collins, Bridget : The Binding, 2019.**
Cossé, Laurence : A Novel Bookstore, 2012.*
Coulon, Cécile : Le Rire du Grand Blessé (not in English), 2013.*
Crowley, Cath, Words in Deep Blue, 2017.**
Dahl, Roald : Matilda, 1988.
Detambel, Régine : Les Livres Prennent Soin de Nous (not in English), 2015.*
Eco, Umberto : The Name of the Rose, 1980.
Fforde, Jasper : The Eyre Affair, 2001.
Funke, Cornelia : Inkheart, 2003.**
Hackwith, A.J. : The Library Of The Unwritten, 2019.
Hanff, Helene : 84, Charing Cross Road, 1970.
Harkness, Deborah : A Discovery of Witches, 2011.**
Harrow, Alix E. : The Ten Thousand Doors of January, 2019.
James, Anna : Pages & Co: Tilly and the Book Wanderers, 2019.
Kelman, Suzanne : The Rejected Writer's Book Club, 2016.
Manguel, Alberto : A History of Reading, 1996.*
McKillip, Patricia : Alphabet of Thorn, 2004.**
Morgenstern, Erin : The Starless Sea, 2019.
Murakami, Haruki : The Strange Library, 2014.*
Pears, Iain : Arcadia, 2015.**
Pennac, Daniel : Kamo, l’Agence Babel (not in English ?), 1992.*
Pennac, Daniel : Write to Kill, 1999.*
Setterfield, Diane : The Thirteenth Tale, 2006.*
Shaffer, Mary Ann, et Barrows, Annie : The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 2008.*
Sloan, Robin : Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, 2012.
Spufford, Francis : The Child that Books Built, 2003.
Walton, Jo : Among Others, 2010.*
Zafón, Carlos Ruiz : The Shadow of the Wind, 2004.**
Zevin, Gabrielle : The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, 2014.
Which book would you add to this list?
