Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives

A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.

From exploring the stacks as a student, to finding her feet as a bookseller-turned-journalist, falling for a fellow bookworm in an independent bookshop, escaping the doldrums of new motherhood and finally building a (book) room of her own, Bookish is the story of a life spent falling in love with reading. Bookworm author Lucy Mangan chronicles her years of buying, borrowing and hoarding everything from well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures.

Brimming with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations, this book is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookstores big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.

Review

An affectionate, warm guide on the healing power of reading. ― Independent

Comforting, funny and moving - Bookish is wonderful to curl up with on good days and bad. ― Sali Hughes

A bookworm’s delight. A joyous whistle stop tour through some books I’ve loved all my life as well as books I discovered through reading it. I devoured this book. ― Sara Collins

Lucy Mangan on books is like butter on toast: perfect. ― Caitlin Moran

Such a gorgeous writer… Funny, warm and charming… A beautiful, warm, comic voice. If you’re a passionate reader, this book feels like the best conversation ever with another of your kind. I was engaged, comforted, educated (about SO much). I laughed, and wanted to be part of your family, and made lists of all the books I need to buy, and was very moved. ― Marian Keyes

What Mangan does brilliantly is express the experience of reading and articulate the emotional connections we make with stories. She understands how books become entwined in our lives and help us make sense of the world. ― Observer (Bookworm)

About the Author

Lucy Mangan is a columnist for Stylist magazine and a features writer and reviewer for The Guardian, The Telegraph and many other publications. She broadcasts frequently on radio and occasionally on television, and is the author My Family and Other Disasters, The Reluctant Bride, Hopscotch and Handbags and Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory.