Some people love books SO much that the only thing to get them is a book...about books! We have to confess, we're partial to this list. It's not just because we get a shout-out in one of them (A Booklover's Guide to New York), or because, as a library, we understand how wisdom lives in the stacks (Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers), but because we're book-lovers, first and foremost, and these volumes make us feel alive.
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A Booklover's Guide to New York
By Cleo Le-Tan
In this beautiful book published by Rizzoli, author Cleo Le-Tan breaks down the best book nooks in New York City, borough by borough. Check out the Brooklyn section, where the Center for Fiction gets a shout-out! Featuring illustrations by the author’s late father, Pierre Le-Tan, this book is an absolutely perfect gift for a lover of all things beautiful and book-ish.
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Essays One
By Lydia Davis
Short story master and acclaimed translator Lydia Davis invites us into her mind with this new essays collection. Her sentences are sharp and original. For fans of Davis, for anyone interested in books about books, for your friend that’s read everything, for the grammarian in your life, for the casual literary critic, for the serious academic bored with everything else.
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Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers
By The New York Public Library
A wonderful gift, and a good read for any age. The New York Public Library staff delves into the archives to find answers to some of the oddest and most interesting questions the library has received over the past 75 years of record keeping! Renowned and beloved illustrator Barry Blitt adds the finishing touches to this collection with his watercolors that bring the questions hilariously to life.
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The Penguin Classics Book
By Henry Eliot
Maybe THE book for bibliophiles this year, because Penguin Classics are perhaps THE books—default books, classic books, the books and covers you think of when you hear the word “book.” Thus, The Penguin Classics Book is nothing more than you think it is—a collection of cover art and editorial remarks about this beloved series—but isn’t that more than enough? For the book lover in your life, it will be.
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The Poetry Remedy
By William Sieghart
What’ll cure what ails you? Medicine? No, poetry! Consider: “Condition: Loss of Faith in the World.” Perscription? “Miracles,” by Richard Jones. Don’t know what one? Don’t worry, William Sieghart, a poetry expert, has a poem for every ailment. This is a witty, erudite gift book for lovers of words and verse, for people who truly believe poetry and art can help (hint: it can).
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The Reading Life
By C.S. Lewis
The Reading Life is compiled of C.S. Lewis’ writings on what it means to live with books. He discusses what it means to be a “good” reader, how to interpret literature, and how a reader obtains insights from the many ways it speaks to us. For the budding writer, or the non-reader trying something different. See: How Fiction Works – James Wood and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Robin Sloane.
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