• Complain

Michael Omara Books - The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next

Here you can read online Michael Omara Books - The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2014, publisher: Michael OMara, genre: Art. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Michael Omara Books The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next
  • Book:
    The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Michael OMara
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2014
  • Rating:
    5 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 100
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

With so many fantastic books out there, it can often be difficult to choose what to read next. Thankfully, The Book Lovers Companion is here to help, bringing together a huge range of the best and most loved titles in one comprehensive guide.
Featuring a diverse selection of books to choose from, from Pride and Prejudice to the modern classics as well as the latest bestsellers, the guide includes interesting discussion points and facts that will be indispensable for book clubs as well as potential companion books with similar themes, honest opinions from readers and razor-sharp reviews from critics, so youll know youre making the right choice every time.
Compiled by a range of English literature experts and avid readers, and with a foreword by Lionel Shriver, author of We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Book Lovers Companion is sure to inspire any book lover. You need never read a bad book again!

Michael Omara Books: author's other books


Who wrote The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

First published in Great Britain in 2007 as The Book Club Bible by

Michael OMara Books Limited

9 Lion Yard

Tremadoc Road

London SW4 7NQ

This electronic edition first published in 2014

ISBN: 978-1-78243-364-4 in ebook format

ISBN: 978-1-84317-960-3 in paperback print format

Copyright Michael OMara Books Limited 2007, 2012, 2014

Every reasonable effort has been made to acknowledge all copyright holders. Any errors or omissions that may have occurred are inadvertent, and anyone with any copyright queries is invited to write to the publishers, so that a full acknowledgement may be included in subsequent editions of this work.

All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Designed and typeset by Martin Bristow

Cover design by Anna Morrison

www.mombooks.com

Contents

I own a threadbare T-shirt that says, Lifes too short to drink bad wine. An even savvier T-shirt would say, Lifes too short to read bad books. There really should be a word for that particular resentment you feel after ploughing through hundreds of pages that didnt pay off. A single reliable book recommendation can spare you hours of annoyance, impatience and disgust.

The Book Lovers' Companion is like that one trustworthy friend upon whose taste you can pretty much rely. Dozens of my lifetime favourite reads appear in this guide, too many to itemize although as a test I did check that one of my very, very favourite novels is indeed included (The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton see ). Usefully, this reference covers a wide range of both classics and popular fiction; you dont want to read only one or the other, any more than youd want to dine day after day on steak alone, or on nothing but summer pudding. While about a third of these entries I havent read myself, given the high quality of the selections that I have, Im now putting the unread third on my private to do list.

Though this guide is handy for individuals, its obviously aimed at book clubs about which, among the cultural elite, I sometimes detect a tinge of condescension. Maybe they just feel left out and, in comparison to regular book club denizens, poorly read. Surely its more stimulating to get together and talk about Kazuo Ishiguros exquisite paean to servitude and emotional repression, The Remains of the Day, than to discuss kitchen remodelling, football scores or the state of the FTSE 100.

Book clubs often bring disparate people together, of different ages, ethnicities and outlooks. They help members get to know each other and themselves with a depth that chit-chat about property prices cant match. Was Anna Karenina really in love with Vronsky, or merely entranced by a romantic idea? You learn a lot about your own values when you try to reconcile sympathy for Yossarians flight from the insanity of air force life with a moral discomfort over any Allied soldier going AWOL in the Second World War. (Catch-22 hilarious, and if you havent devoured it already, a must-read.)

I consider the burgeoning popularity of book clubs one of the most encouraging social developments of recent times. Nothing delights me more in signing queues than when a boisterous cluster of readers declares that they had one of the best book club meetings ever when discussing one of my novels. The claim consistently decodes: We got into a huge fight. So the most fruitful selections for clubs arent necessarily books that everyone loves, but especially the ones about which members violently disagree.

True, I spotted three or four selections included here (I wont say which) that I couldnt bear. But that just means that, at a book club meeting, Id go bug-eyed with denunciation, and meanwhile three other folks would rail that it was one of the finest books theyd ever read. Someone tell Tony Bennett thats entertainment.

L IONEL S HRIVER , New York, 2007

Theres no wrong or right way to use The Book Lovers Companion: you can skip straight to the books youve heard of, work your way through alphabetically, or concentrate on your favourite genre or author.

In compiling the title selection, we made a rule that an author could be featured only once, and limited the choice to full-length books, so there are no plays, poetry or short stories.

Each entry has been penned by a different writer, which accounts for the variations in style and approach.

Weve tried to include critical comments that go beyond gushing praise to something a little more thought-provoking.

The book length provided relates to the edition the reviewer possessed; the number of pages may vary in other editions.

Introduction:
A Book Lover Speaks

Its fair to say that I have a book habit. I once rented a whollyunsuitable flat having been seduced by shelves that ran the lengthof the bedroom. My bedside table groans under towers of booksthat I have bought, borrowed or been given, and I have a horriblefeeling that there are still boxes of books unpacked from my lastmove. However, when I finish a book especially one Ive livedand breathed I am always at a loss as to what to read next. Whatwill live up to the novel whose world I have left so reluctantly?

I was once told that the average person would read threethousand books during their lifetime. If anything it seemsreasonably generous: that would be thirty-seven and a half booksconsumed each year if you lived to be eighty. But I vividlyremember being horrified. I think it was the first moment when Ihad a sense of anything in life being finite. I was just starting toread grown-up books at that time and I fully intended to readeverything well, everything good, anyway.

Since then I feel rising panic when I realize I am not enjoying abook because I am using up one of my precious literary experienceson something that doesnt engage me, teach me something or takeme somewhere. What a waste! (I am an inveterate finisher, too,which means I will resentfully plough through to the end,although I suppose I only have myself to blame for this.)

This, then, is why book lovers everywhere need this book. Hereare a hundred recommended titles, each with a non-spoilersynopsis, so that you need not waste your cherished reading time.Furthermore, there are discussion points, background informationand suggested complementary titles, so its an ideal guide for bookclub members. I hope this book helps you to discover stories thatmay change your world: make every read count!

A NA S AMPSON , L ONDON , 2012

C HINUA A CHEBE

Published 1958 / Length 148 pages

Things Fall Apart follows the ambitions and struggles of Okonkwo, a prominent member of a pre-colonial Igbo village in what is now Nigeria, as he strives to maintain his high standing within his community in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Okonkwo has overcome a disadvantaged childhood to become a successful man, but he seems fated to lose the status he cherishes. His blind commitment to traditional values undermines his relationship with his family, particularly his son Nwoye. He is prepared to make great sacrifices in order to preserve his position in the village, yet Okonkwos world is changing, as British colonial rule begins to encroach upon the Igbo way of life. Achebe portrays the colonial experience from an African perspective: the European culture promoted by the invading authorities represents a challenge to Okonkwos identity, one he must overcome in order to survive. Written in the late 1950s against the backdrop of Nigerias journey towards independence, the book raises questions about collective identity, morality and self-alienation, and constitutes the foundation of modern African literature in English.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next»

Look at similar books to The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next»

Discussion, reviews of the book The Book Lovers Companion: What to Read Next and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.