This book has some little nuggets perfect for citing at nerd-parties or if you want to impress your book-loving friends. However it felt a little dry, more like wikipedia than book chapters. Still, book lovers will forgive this.

While this book was very interesting, I don't think the format worked well for information retention. The author skipped around so much with only a theme for each chapter to tie things together. I had a hard time actually remembering most of what I'd read even when I found it to be intriguing. The top ten lists featured at the end of many chapters often weren't even related topics.

That being said, it was entirely bite-sized pieces of information that might have been more well-suited to intermittent reading. I can imagine picking it up and reading a few pages here and there. But to sit down and read it cover to cover? Not my cup of tea, really.

I have recently started gathering this fascinating sub-genre of books: books about books. Some are more subject-specific, but this one falls into this category in a more general fashion. There are snippets offered here across many genres and feels made to pick up and read a bit at a glance, and really in any order, rather than read from cover-to-cover in one sitting. I would imagine that this would make a great gift for any booklover, and would be easy to see on a coffee table.

And while its intended audience is surely booklovers - as the title alone suggests - the age range of that audience is perhaps a bit less clear...The information is presented in a very simple fashion, with explanations that I doubt most true booklovers would actually require. Maybe younger readers - or those who have more recently discovered their love of reading - will find this to be a good resource. But the book also feels very dated - its focus is primarily on non-contemporary authors. And the lists provided to inspire reading rarely show a publication more recent than the early 2000s. The book is also very British, so maybe the intended audience is more for younger UK booklovers...

All in all, I did finish reading this, but though I had felt so excited that I was the book's intended audience, by the end it just wasn't what I had been hoping for. There are a few fun anecdotes that were new to me, but on the whole, I didn't learn much here. And for a TBR that is always growing, I didn't add a single title to it based on the information offered here. And the last chapter does mention 2017 (prior to that the most recent publication date of a title was 2011), but I think that this book needs a bit more focus in identifying its intended audience, because the current scope of its contents was not what I had been hoping for.

This is a great peek behind the scenes of books and what they mean to the writers who create them. Great book!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I adore this book, For the Love of Books by Graham Tarrent, it contains a wealth of information, backgrounds, secrets and tales of authors! I am a huge reader and was thrilled at the lists of books along with brief stories of authors and who they mix with and how books were accomplished. I now have additional knowledge about banned books, the process (or not) about writing and so much interesting background I hadn't considered before. This is a wonderfully fun book about books. It was pure joy for me and would be for book lovers and those who love books! My list of "to be read" is substantially longer!

Very informative book about books. Starting with history related to the beginning of writing in a form that has become what it is today, this book is a joy for those who enjoy history and learning.

As a librarian and book junkie, I loved this book! It's not necessarily something my patrons would enjoy, but I'll be buying copies not only for myself, but for my librarian friends. It's this kind of trivia that makes our hearts go pitter-patter. I'd love to see some of the trivia snippets put into memes for use on library web pages. It's the little facts and trivia behind the stories that make things so interesting.

This was a very enjoyable book. Informative and interesting.
I requested it obviously for its title. I love books and i love stories about books, and this one combined both.
I had quite a good time reading stories about favorites books and authors, revisiting some forgotten information and getting to know about other authors, their books and stories.
I enjoyed a lot the chapter about the Feuds between authors, they are really a witty breed!
I have to go back to the book again and skim quickly through it to add all the books that caught my fancy while reading, i can see that this will make my list even more unmanageable but it is all "for the love of books".

For those of us with bookshelves that can no longer hold all our printed treasures, or those of us who get more use out a library card than a passport, the new book For the Love of Books by Graham Tarrant is a joy.  If you're looking to find facts about authors and the stories behind them, this is a handy little guide to keep with you. Filled with anecdotes, irreverent history and lists of book recommendations for days, For the Love of Books will answer questions for you like why certain books are banned in China, the weird ways authors have died, and weird superstitions authors kept to while writing that classic novel.

My particular favorite sections had to do with author feuds and how they went on to create better literature.

For the Love of Books is available June 18th from Skyhorse Publishing and is a wonderful gift for the reader in your life, even if that reader is you.

Thank you to Skyhorse Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Being a book nerd, requesting this book was a no-brainer - and it did not disappoint. Great read, lots of fascinating tidbits of historical information on authors and books. I see that some reviewers felt the information wasn't deep enough, just scratching the surface in some cases. However, I beg to differ. My feeling is that one of the best thing a book can do is get you interested and curious to know more. And yes, I did plunge down various wormholes looking for more information on one topic or another!

Highly recommended for anyone who loves books.

A charming miscellany of information about books and authors. It's not a book to read cover to cover but something to keep nearby to dip into whenever you want to read for a bit.

It's packed with delightful anecdotes, lists of books and authors, and interesting facts.

The chapters group the information together loosely, covering such topics as the novel, writers related to each other, mysteries, and addiction.

A delightful book for any lover of reading.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the perfect book for ANY book lover. It's a great addition to any bookcase. The tidbits of info are fantastic.

For The Love of Books is one of those reads that is entertaining from start to finish and speaks to the heart of any book lover. I loved all the little known tidbits and historical bits that I would have never known about famous books and authors. Definitely a quick and enjoyable read and I cannot wait to purchase this in hardcover for my bookshelf. I also think this would make a perfect holiday, birthday or “just because” book for all the readers in your life and I know it will be so widely appreciated!

For the Love of Books is a very entertaining read. The book is about, well, books! There's history about books, fun facts about books, and chapters about different types of books. I love books, so I truly enjoyed reading every page of this book. I will definitely be buying a hard copy when it is published. I am so glad that I requested it. I highly recommend this book for every book lover!

For many readers, a book about books is one of the most appealing types of books available. Whether it is a memoir of a reading life or reference material that helps open one’s mind to new authors or genres, a good book about books is always enjoyable. For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Authors Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More by British author Graham Tarrant falls firmly into the latter category. It provides a wealth of information about the history of books– particularly over the past two hundred years– and gives the reader brief glimpses into the lives of a variety of authors. Some of those glimpses are humorous, some contentious, and some show us the dark sides of the authors’ lives.

For the most part, these glimpses are entertaining, if brief. Few of the stories are more than a paragraph or two, though some as long as a couple of pages. Tarrant’s brevity provides enough information that they don’t feel completely lacking, but it does make the book feel like a mad dash through literary history. Factoids are fun and easy to take in, but they don’t satisfy the desire for a deeper story.

For the Love of Books is an entertaining book and handy as a reference guide, but its appeal is largely surface level. Readers searching for a more in-depth look into favorite authors or genres will hunger for more information, but those who are getting back into the habit of reading will likely find it to be fun and useful.

This is a fun little book for the avid reader in your life. Lots of interesting stories about writers: their lives, deaths, successes, failures and everything in between. Is is a great book for dipping in and out of. I really enjoyed it.
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for a review.

A nice little jaunt through the lives and experiences of writers and their works, covering relationships, failures, humorous encounters, feuds, and more. Some of the chapters are more engaging than others, but overall a fun look at the truth behind a lot of familiar fiction.

Heck yeah! :-)
Thank you for the opportunity to review "For the Love of Books" by Graham Tarrant. FtLoB is a pleasurable, light, interesting read that I whipped through in practically no time at all... and that's actually a good thing, as it means FtLoB kept my attention against all distractions! Lots of neat tidbits of information in this one, and I'll definitely recommend it to others.

This book is a must for any book lover. It is filled with fun facts and tons of history about books and authors and much more. I enjoyed this and think every book lover will too.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

I love reading books like this, books that talk about books, authors and literature in general. This book is all these and even more and I really enjoyed it.
It covers a lot of topics regarding books, with many bookish facts. I learned many things that I didn't know and I also got some great book recommendations.

If you love books you need this books and you will love it.