Books about bookworms, book stores, books and reading is a favourite genre of mine. I really marvel at the skill that writers have, in spinning a story centered around this theme.The main character is usually a bookworm and the storyline is about how his/her world revolves around books and reading, how they tend to gravitate towards similar people or how they manage to get along with the other tribe.
The cover page and title itself half won me over, when I happened to read a review of 'The Boookish Life of Nina Hill' by Abbi Waxman. I immediately looked it up and downloaded a sample on my kindle. The language, light tone and most importantly, Nina herself won me over! Here was a girl who lived with a cat in a small apartment that had bookshelves dominating the walls, worked in a bookstore where she ran book clubs for kids, spent her spare time between reading, being part of a trivia team and movie nights. Her carefree stage of life had me wistfully looking back and slightly longing:).
Lets get to the story now. The protagonist Nina, the daughter of a single mother, is a complete introvert like every reader worth his/her salt is supposed to be. (Don't ask me who made that rule. I just know that it seems to be universal with very few exceptions.)
The first few chapters gives the reader a good look into Nina's everyday life, her past and how it has made her into what she is today. The story then goes on to unfold an unexpected event that leads her to discover the existence of a hitherto unknown huge family. While she is still grappling with that discovery, she is attracted to a man from another trivia team. The story from that point is about how she reconciles to the sudden presence of so many relationships in her life which was until then very simple, uncluttered and populated only with people whom she really liked and connected to. Happenings at her workplace (a local bookstore) and the book readings and book club events that happen there weave in and out of the narrative, keeping up her 'bookish life',
There were many things that I could relate to in this book - Nina's reading evenings when she would curl up with her book and a cup of tea, her craze for books and reading and how she looks forward to and totally savours her 'alone time' . Best amongst it all was how she looked at relationships in life. That they literally translated into a bunch of other people's expectations to be met, completely resonated with me. Personally, this is a reason why I meticulously prune the number of people in my life and I was so glad to see someone else think the same way :)
What did not strike a chord was the fact that the author had slightly stereotyped voracious readers as people who had trouble connecting to others during childhood, a trait which according to the book, develops and continues well in adulthood too. There seemed to be a suggestion that books were an escape route to hide this disability. She had spun a kind of 'weirdo' halo around book lovers.
From my experience of being a reader and knowing several others who are, I feel this is not entirely true. I loved books since childhood but still had a lot of friends all through. Am now an adult who reads much more than I did as a child and I still have a friends circle. And the reading bug has rubbed off on some of my friends too!
Also, the book's ending was extremely predictable. All loose ends tied in the expected way and they lived happily ever after! :)
In spite of the above points, I still enjoyed the book and my love for the genre only grew with reading it. So if you are looking for your next read, do pick this up for the laid back life that it portrays, the central theme and most of all, the lucid writing (even though it was peppered with a lot of slang and informal English). Go, delve into your bookish life by picking this one up :)
Lets get to the story now. The protagonist Nina, the daughter of a single mother, is a complete introvert like every reader worth his/her salt is supposed to be. (Don't ask me who made that rule. I just know that it seems to be universal with very few exceptions.)
The first few chapters gives the reader a good look into Nina's everyday life, her past and how it has made her into what she is today. The story then goes on to unfold an unexpected event that leads her to discover the existence of a hitherto unknown huge family. While she is still grappling with that discovery, she is attracted to a man from another trivia team. The story from that point is about how she reconciles to the sudden presence of so many relationships in her life which was until then very simple, uncluttered and populated only with people whom she really liked and connected to. Happenings at her workplace (a local bookstore) and the book readings and book club events that happen there weave in and out of the narrative, keeping up her 'bookish life',
There were many things that I could relate to in this book - Nina's reading evenings when she would curl up with her book and a cup of tea, her craze for books and reading and how she looks forward to and totally savours her 'alone time' . Best amongst it all was how she looked at relationships in life. That they literally translated into a bunch of other people's expectations to be met, completely resonated with me. Personally, this is a reason why I meticulously prune the number of people in my life and I was so glad to see someone else think the same way :)
What did not strike a chord was the fact that the author had slightly stereotyped voracious readers as people who had trouble connecting to others during childhood, a trait which according to the book, develops and continues well in adulthood too. There seemed to be a suggestion that books were an escape route to hide this disability. She had spun a kind of 'weirdo' halo around book lovers.
From my experience of being a reader and knowing several others who are, I feel this is not entirely true. I loved books since childhood but still had a lot of friends all through. Am now an adult who reads much more than I did as a child and I still have a friends circle. And the reading bug has rubbed off on some of my friends too!
Also, the book's ending was extremely predictable. All loose ends tied in the expected way and they lived happily ever after! :)
In spite of the above points, I still enjoyed the book and my love for the genre only grew with reading it. So if you are looking for your next read, do pick this up for the laid back life that it portrays, the central theme and most of all, the lucid writing (even though it was peppered with a lot of slang and informal English). Go, delve into your bookish life by picking this one up :)
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