One for the Books

In ONE FOR THE BOOKS, Queenan brings his inimitable sensibility to the subject of books in an era in which they have become the equivalent of an endangered species. His focus is not just on books as physical objects, however, but on the entire culture of reading, and what books really mean in people's lives today. What does it indicate about a person who reads on the toilet? For someone who has no books displayed in their living room but only photographs of the 1967 Buffalo Bills championship, what does this mean? What can be inferred about the owners of a country house from the collection of books they have gathered there? Is the classic notion of a "lifelong reading plan" still in play today? Can an obsession with reading prove detrimental to one's well-being, or just the opposite? How useful are covers in selling books? Does trash literature, which Queenan openly admits to reading, have any real value?

Queenan's quest for the meaning of reading includes a consideration of some of his own marathon projects (spending a year reading only short books, spending a year reading books he has always suspected he would hate, devoting a year to books by authors who burned out early) and reclamation efforts, as when, after discovering that a local library is planning to throw away a number of books that have not been borrowed for years, he systematically begins checking them out to spare their lives.

ONE FOR THE BOOKS considers phenomena as writers who are struck by lighting (one-hit phenomena), early promise unfulfilled (what happened to Ralph Ellison?), how readers' opinions of writers change over the course of their lives, books that are simply like no other books (Sebald), and the disappearance of the writer as a public figure. "The confraternity of book lovers are united by a conviction that literature is an endless series of expeditions," writes Queenan, and ONE FOR THE BOOKS will take anyone who loves books and reading on an unforgettably funny and moving journey.

About the author: Joe Queenan has been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GQ, and Spy. He has written for Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Golf Digest, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The New Republic, and contributes to The New York Times and The Guardian. He has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman¸ Good Morning America, Today, and The Daily Show. His books include The New York Times bestseller and Notable book Closing Time: A Memoir.