2023 EDIT: I read a lot of the books recommended by the author of this memoir. A few I really liked, but most of them are actually rubbish, if I do say so myself. Our tastes are very different. Too different. I disagree with her on quite a lot of things, as it turns out.
'Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading' - a good, sweet concept, but unfortunately - and ultimately - this book about books is not really for me. I trust in my own tastes, to help me in what to read next.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
Brilliant. A must-read for all bookworms.
Well, now I have a whole new set of books recommended to me on the backfile. Mostly it contains all the childhood faves of others that I had missed out on, deprived and stupid child that I was. But I suppose all bookworms catch up on anything in their own time, at their own leisure and pace.
Despite disagreeing with Lucy Mangan more often than not on book opinions - and maybe it's because I'm a very picky reader who's so hard to impress that I'm less open to her open-mindedness - by the end of 'Bookworm', her absolute passion for books, her introverted nature, her necessity to read as a top priority in life, her research and knowledge which stumps mine by a London library's worth, won me over utterly. Her voice, her experiences, they are as valuable as anyone else's. Our love of books and stories alone make us kindred spirits (plus we're both Brits).
'Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading' is a nostalgic charm - for the life of the youth in the past ('70s, '80s, '90s) as well as for classic children's literature - that will wrap you up under its soft, quilted spell. I could taste and smell the bookworm's passion for words on pages within.
Never let paperbacks and hardbacks die. They are an aspect of innocence past that should be passed on and endured, in each new generation, to keep on educating and enriching lives, so as not to be lost. Let the dogeared live forever. We worms, who should be considered butterflies in society, need our nourishment.
Books are treasures: they contain a powerful discovery, a magic, of their own. Ink, words, paper, dust, stories with substance and sustenance - all read and breathed in.
All lived and carried on in people's minds for a lifetime.
Final Score: 4.5/5
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