The Secret Library, Oliver Tearle
This is a beautifully presented book, at least in the hardback — the dustcover is lovely, with a keyhole cut into the front and edged with silver, and the book is nicely bound. It’s not quite as meta as the binding of Keith Houston’s The Book, but it’s still a lovely object that will make a good gift for book lovers of your acquaintance.
In terms of content, it’s fairly shallow: it’s a whistlestop tour, as it says several times, so the facts here are more on the level of trivia than anything in-depth. If you’d like a survey of literature and weird facts relating to literature and literary figures, it’s a good one. It made for a good book to read on the train, too, as you could easily dip in and out of it. There was no need to keep track of things too closely.
I think I hoped for more, but honestly, I’m not sure what I was expecting.
Sorry to hear that this was only a 3 star read for you. I hadn’t heard of it until now, but that cover sure is pretty so I was hoping for an amazing read! I do like the part where you said you could read it and dip in and out of it without having to follow things too closely – I like to read books like this sometimes when I have trouble concentrating too much on some books, like fantasy novels, that require a lot of attention and patience.
Kelly @ Here’s to Happy Endings recently posted…Review: Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage
Yeah, it’s okay and informative, but… not something I feel like I needed, y’know? But it is pretty.