I cannot even with this
book, I swear. I cannot. All ability to do anything other than flail around and
key smash has deserted me, perhaps forever.
This book is my happy
place, my spirit animal, my patronus. If a person could have a book as a daemon this would be mine. It's all
that's good in the world.
Bookshops are (among other
things) safe places, Jen says in the epigraph. I believe that to be true. Do
you want to know another thing though? This book is a safe place. It's just...I
CANNOT EVEN.
Try harder, Josephine,
please.
Ok, so, you know when you
love a thing and you have always loved a thing and you don't know how to
articulate, quite, just how much or why you love the thing and then someone
comes along and expresses all that you love about the thing perfectly for you,
and suddenly it all makes sense? Suddenly you have an answer right there for
whenever somebody asks you why you love the thing so much? That's what this
book is. It’s the answer to why I love the thing.
Why do you love books Josephine, what exactly is it
about bookshops? Ask me, go on. The
answer lies within The Bookshop Book. I dare you to read this book and not want to
visit every place that lives in its pages. I dare you to not fall harder into
bookshop love than you are already. I dare you to not want to hug Jen hard
enough to hurt for finally writing the book you've waited your whole life to
read. I dare you. I double dare you.
This book is, simply put,
the why’s and the wherefore’s and the how's of what it means to love books and
bookshops.
It's a journey and an
exploration; it's an adventure and an education; and it's…it’s a goddamn love story alright. It's a love story
about one girl and her books and bookshops, and if you love bookshops even a
tiny bit then it's also a love story about you.
I’d thought it would be
one of those books I’d sort of dip in and out of you know, a bit here and a
snippet there, and it is that – it lives on my coffee table and dipping in and
out of it is exactly what I do, but it’s also a really fantabulous read. I
picked it up and I curled up onder my patchwork quilt with my coffee in my Alice mug and I just
could not put it down. Jen's love for what she writes about shines through
every word, and she has this inimitable style, this way of writing that's just
like having a conversation with her: this book is so well researched and Jen
passes that information along with an enthusiasm that you can't help but be
swept up in, you want to go to all these places and meet all these people and
read all these books and do ALL THE THINGS. And it's just, it's a glorious book
ok. I love it so damn hard.
I love it. So damn hard.
