A book for those who love books! This book has a lot of information about the history of books and authors. As someone who loves learning little known facts about a variety of topics, I was thrilled to read facts and history about authors and stories. I could see additional volumes being written to provide even more fun facts about other authors, genres, stories and the like. This will be on my gift list for many 'bookish' friends. It will definitely find its way to my coffee table as soon as it is released!
I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For people who not only enjoy reading, but enjoy understanding literature. I found this book fascinating. I love history and I love books, so combining the two I found this short read endearing for my bookish soul.

This book would make a great gift for any reader in your life. I enjoyed the facts and information, although I found the history to be pretty high level. I would love to see the layout of this on paper, and I almost feel disappointed that I read this on digital. It definitely isn't the ideal medium for this.

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I found a hard time getting into this book. It's not laid out in the narrative form, but rather in segments of different factoids. Tarrant lists a ton of very interesting facts about authors that I had not been aware of prior. At times, I felt that the way the information was stated was confusing and redundant. A lot of statements like, "arguably the best novel of 'insert time period/country' of all time" or "well-known" which I feel are quite subjective statements. It was laid out like a textbook but I questioned the authoritativeness of the author. Not meant as an insult, this book would be a great "bathroom book". It can easily be picked up and put down whenever. I could see this book being a great gift for a literary lover who is super hard to buy for or a graduation gift for an English major.

This review is also posted on my Goodreads and personal blog.

<i>“Books are companions for life—and ideal companions at that.”</i>

From oral traditions to novels and from libraries to serials, For The Love of Books starts by weaving through the timeline of books, discussing historic moments, genres, notable releases and how things have changed over time. This section is inherently a joy to read, with fun facts and tidbits offered throughout, with excellent writing drawing a coherent but winding tale about how books reached where they are today. It subsequently moves into themed chapters with several-paragraphs-long tales about specific books, authors and eras. This part, while fun and enjoyable, is a little less readable and is probably more for the occasional casual read on a Sunday afternoon than a single-sitting digestion. Excellent book, worth a look.

Thank you to Skyhorse Publishing, Netgalley and Graham Tarrant for the chance to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting, fun and light-hearted book full of facts and trivia any bibliophile will enjoy.

I found the history of books particularly riveting and learned a lot reading this book. There are some great quotes from authors about books and writing in here too. Many of the facts about the authors were new to me and while some weren’t especially riveting, there were others that were witty or fascinating. I enjoyed learning more about authors I like and some that I’d never heard of or knew little about. For example: did you know that Margaret Atwood invented a remote-controlled pen so she can sign books for fans when unable to be there in person?

This was a quick read for me and I admit I did skim some parts that I found a little tedious. Overall this is a book I’d recommend if you fancy something different or if you want to learn more about books and literature.

A winsomely written book about books and the people who write them! This is a MUST READ for every reader! It includes a comprehensive history of books in its various forms (bible, manuals, ebooks, novels, etc.) and significant information you likely didn’t know about some of the most historically significant books in our lifetime! (canonical and otherwise)

It’s worth the reading list alone!

Highly recommend

I'm plodding through this book one entry at a time because it is one of those informative books that need not be read in one sitting but savored little by little. Informative, nevertheless.

PS: I wonder why this one was an uncorrected manuscript kindle version. May not provide a pleasurable reading experience when provided as a reviewer copy here.

This was a fun little book. It is a great gift for any book lover and covers everything that bibliophiles are interested in. The fun fact sections were really interesting and I enjoyed this. It would not reread this again but it provided a few hours interest.

Concise but still chock-full of interesting facts and tidbits about the history of books and their authors, For the Love of Books by Graham Tarrant, is an entertaining overview that will appeal to all bibliophiles. Tarrant approaches the subject with a light touch-with humor and an attitude of wonder rather than a dry recitation or wordy analysis. He covers everything from the invention of the form to the different genres, citing examples of each with quotes and quick summaries. The book also provides insight into the interesting lives of the writers themselves- including background trivia, inspirations, feuds, substance abuse struggles, brushes with the law and even some quirky death stories. For aspiring writers, there are also passages that provide advice both serious and tongue-in-cheek. For the Love of Books perhaps relies a bit too heavily on the traditional and well-known, and the reader may be left desiring more inclusion of those outside of the usual British/American canon. Still, there is plenty of new information to discover in Tarrant’s offering to make it a fun, quick dip into the fascinating world of books.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an objective review.

This is an engaging and entertaining book that will surely appeal to anyone who loves books.
It's full of stories, facts and will keep you hooked till the last page.
I loved the style of writing and how loved how it's well researched.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Did you know that George Washington once worked as a book salesman? Or that fewer than 4,000 copies of Herman Melville's Moby Dick sold during his lifetime? Moby Dick is now recognized as one of the greatest works of its time but Melville was so obscure at the time of his death that his obituary was printed late and it listed his first name as "Hiram".

This book is a book for and about books, targeting bibliophiles. It recounts the history and rise of eBooks and graphic novels, banned books and the rationale for their banning, and covers fun topics like famous writer feuds, literature awards and the origin of words. For example, Dr. Seuss is responsible for giving us the word "nerd".

This is a book that is perhaps most enjoyed by setting it down and coming back to it often.

Thank you to Graham Tarrant, Skyhorse Publishing and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For the love of books by Graham Tarrant is a book that explores the lives, feuds, loves and deaths of the great writers of the world.
It had a lot of very interesting stories of the authors that I love to read. I was fascinated by the stories of great authors who doubled as spies, flanderers, and were just plain crazy.
If you like gossip magazines or if you like biographies, this book is for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read it cover to cover, though it's perhaps better designed to be dipped in and out of. I'm pretty well versed in the lesser known tidbits of literary lore and scandalous lives of writers, but there were still things in here that I have added to my mental file of bookish facts. I especially enjoyed the breadth of genres including sci fi and kid lit, not just the expected old dead white guys.

Disclaimer: I received this ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is like a cheatsheet version of bookish facts! The chapters are sanctioned out by themes and there are little snippets of factoids and stories within. It was very entertaining and eye opening. Some of the authors I was not familiar with which I was shocked as I do consider myself bookish. However, there were more than enough of writers that I did know and some interesting trivia that I definitely had not heard. I think this would be a nice coffee table book.

This book was a great history on the histroy of books, and for the most part, I enjoyed reading it. However, I felt that it could get a little dry at some moments, but this wasn't a deal-breaker, so I would still recommend this book to anyone that loves reading!

This was a really fun book.
Pages of fun facts about your favorite authors, favorite books and interesting bits of knowledge.

For example -
Words coined by authors such as Lewis Carroll's "chortle" or Dr. Seuss's "nerd"

And first draft book titles -
Imagine reading about Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austens "First Impressions"
Or about lavish Jay Gatsby in F.Scott Fitzgerald's "Incident at West Egg"

The author also gives you reading recommendations - for example
the "Book of the month"
"Doctor January" - By Rhoda Baxter all the way to "A week In December" - By Sebastian Faulks.

This truly is a book for book lovers.

​

Reading is a really subjective thing, while I did for the most part enjoy this, I don't think mine and Tarrant's reading taste are similar.

Also noteworthy, this book is geared first to readers in the UK, resources and references cited are all English (Times Literary Supplement and others cited). And I don't know if this is a Brit thing, but Tarrant interchangeably used Gay and Homosexual to describe several authors - in my experience the use of the term homosexual has fallen out of favour and Gay or Queer are much preferred.

There were a couple errors (and these are ones that this inexperienced reader caught so there could be more...) that I hope the publishers can fix: 1) A quote attributed to Dorothy Parker about Somerset Maugham, was actually spoken by Somerset Maugham, and 2) in the pseudonym section Anne Rice is the pseudonym attributed to a man - unless there is another Anne Rice I don't know about, this is clearly wrong.

As I noted, reading is highly subjective, and perhaps this is why Mr. Tarrant seems to favour male authors (or perhaps it is because of the long standing patriarchal nature of the industry), but I found it particularly ironic that he noted the lack of female Nobel laureates, and then made a list of 10 authors he thought had warranted the award for their body of work and most were male ("Pot? It is I Kettle, calling you black" much?!).

I'm not too certain for whom this book is intended, other than us lovers of all things books. I suppose if you are one of these people, or you know of one of these people this would be a lovely little addition.

The format is quite nice with "It's a fact" and lists throughout the text that make it an easy reference guide. The sections are also nicely arranged into areas of interest making it easy to pick-up recommendations on particular genres.

All in all, I love books about books, and I love finding 'new' authors whose catalogs I can go back and explore. I also appreciate the anecdotes presented that gave authors life, which makes me think there are quite a few biographies I should also explore.

Great book broken up into literary themes. I enjoyed learning tidbits behind the first novel, printing, genres and great examples of each genre. I great book to pick up and read a few pages at a time!

For the Love of Books will educate you on the history of books, facts about authors, and interesting anecdotes on tales old and new. This book reads like a textbook with a little personality thrown in and is, by design, a scholarly undertaking. There is no story involved to capture your fancy, but if you love books and like to learn about them, then you will enjoy this book. Thanks To NetGalley for this advance copy to read.