I picked it up after seeing it as I was on my to the fantasy section of a local bookstore. Before picking it up I had never heard of it before and knew nothing about it. The blurb on the book made it sound interested so I picked it up.
Going into this book I didn't really know what to expect as like I said I knew nothing about this book, and before starting to read it, had done no research into it to find out more. I think I expected more of a storyline as that's what I'm used to. At first I found the quotations off putting as I wasn't expecting it, but after awhile I started to get into it.
My favourite chapter was the one on bookish behaviour. I think it was because I was able to connect with a few of them. My favourite quotation is one from this chapter.
"The best bookcase moment, I find, is when you reach up to get a paperback that happens to sit on one of the higher shelves, above your head. You single it out by putting a fingertip atop the block of its pages and pulling gently down, so that the book rocks forward and a triangle of cover design appears from between the paperbacks on either side. The book's emergence is steadied and slowed by the mild lateral pressure of its shelved peers, and, if you stop pulling just than, it will hang there by itself, at an angle, leaning out over the room like an admonishing piece of architectural detail; it will not fall. Finally the moment of equilibrium passes: the book's displaced centre of gravity and the narrowing area it has available for adjacent friction conspire to release its weight to you, and it drops forward into your open hand. You catch the book that you chose to make fall."
Nicholson Baker, 'Books as furniture' (1995)
I found this book enjoyable once I started to get into it. I think you won't like this book if you want a storyline or if you aren't a book lover. This would be a good book to get if you want to get something a little bit different. Overall I give this book 3.5/5 stars
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