jola_g's review against another edition
3.0
Linda Grant confessed that she had murdered her library. I admit to not liking her book as much as I’ve expected.
I adore books about reading. My favourite ones are [b: Howards End Is on the Landing|6657509|Howards End Is on the Landing A Year of Reading from Home|Susan Hill|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347764026s/6657509.jpg|6852149] by Susan Hill, [b: Ex Libris|480712|Ex-Libris|Ross King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347422149s/480712.jpg|1856314] by Anne Fadiman and [b: 84, Charing Cross Road|368916|84, Charing Cross Road|Helene Hanff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1287338794s/368916.jpg|938626] by Helene Hanff. Unfortunately, ‘I murdered My Library’ lacks their charm. On the other hand, I appreciate Linda Grant’s honesty. Her musings are very personal. She even confesses to stealing books: ‘I stole books for quite a long time – three or four years. I stole them because I wanted them. I wanted books in a junkie kind of way’.
What was the motive for murder mentioned in the title? Linda Grant wanted to sell her flat and it turned out that according to estate agents books are a big no-no, because they 'make rooms look messy’ and they are ’too personal as objects to be displayed’. Sounds like a heresy, doesn’t it? Grant followed the estate agents' advice and now feels bad about it. No wonder. She’d been building her library for more than 50 years and got rid of at least half of it.
Despite my reservations, 'I Murdered My Library' is a feast for book lovers. Maybe a diet feast compared to books mentioned above, but anyway. I felt at home reading about Grant's love for literature, collecting books, bookshops, inspecting bookshelves in friends’ houses, compulsive shopping for books, intense relationship with books. So many things sound familiar! I enjoyed Linda Grant's witty musings about literature and life, topped with sprinkles of slightly bitter sense of humour.
Two things bothered me while reading 'I Murdered My Library'. I didn’t like the passage which looks like a love letter to Kindle and Amazon, emphasizing how better Kindle is compared to other e-reader, specific name included. It sounded like a commercial. The other thing that made me feel awkward was an unjust generalization: ‘The next generation don’t want old books – they don’t seem to want books at all.’ Linda Grant should definitely have a look at Goodreads from time to time. Or come to my school and see teenagers reading for pleasure during breaks. Or come to Warsaw Book Fair and survive a stampede of crowds.
It’s such a tiny booklet, that summarizing it would kill your reading pleasure. No more killing, the murder committed by Linda Grant is enough. If you can relate to her vision of hell as a place 'in which eternity is a Kindle with a dead battery' and her confession 'Reading wasn't my religion - it was my oxygen', and if you wish to know the answers to questions like:
What do some writers bury in their gardens?
What novel did Linda Grant get from her ex-boyfriend as a breaking-up present?
Which books survived the genocide?
Who are her favourite authors?
... just indulge in ‘I Murdered My Library’.
I adore books about reading. My favourite ones are [b: Howards End Is on the Landing|6657509|Howards End Is on the Landing A Year of Reading from Home|Susan Hill|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347764026s/6657509.jpg|6852149] by Susan Hill, [b: Ex Libris|480712|Ex-Libris|Ross King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347422149s/480712.jpg|1856314] by Anne Fadiman and [b: 84, Charing Cross Road|368916|84, Charing Cross Road|Helene Hanff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1287338794s/368916.jpg|938626] by Helene Hanff. Unfortunately, ‘I murdered My Library’ lacks their charm. On the other hand, I appreciate Linda Grant’s honesty. Her musings are very personal. She even confesses to stealing books: ‘I stole books for quite a long time – three or four years. I stole them because I wanted them. I wanted books in a junkie kind of way’.
What was the motive for murder mentioned in the title? Linda Grant wanted to sell her flat and it turned out that according to estate agents books are a big no-no, because they 'make rooms look messy’ and they are ’too personal as objects to be displayed’. Sounds like a heresy, doesn’t it? Grant followed the estate agents' advice and now feels bad about it. No wonder. She’d been building her library for more than 50 years and got rid of at least half of it.
Despite my reservations, 'I Murdered My Library' is a feast for book lovers. Maybe a diet feast compared to books mentioned above, but anyway. I felt at home reading about Grant's love for literature, collecting books, bookshops, inspecting bookshelves in friends’ houses, compulsive shopping for books, intense relationship with books. So many things sound familiar! I enjoyed Linda Grant's witty musings about literature and life, topped with sprinkles of slightly bitter sense of humour.
Two things bothered me while reading 'I Murdered My Library'. I didn’t like the passage which looks like a love letter to Kindle and Amazon, emphasizing how better Kindle is compared to other e-reader, specific name included. It sounded like a commercial. The other thing that made me feel awkward was an unjust generalization: ‘The next generation don’t want old books – they don’t seem to want books at all.’ Linda Grant should definitely have a look at Goodreads from time to time. Or come to my school and see teenagers reading for pleasure during breaks. Or come to Warsaw Book Fair and survive a stampede of crowds.
It’s such a tiny booklet, that summarizing it would kill your reading pleasure. No more killing, the murder committed by Linda Grant is enough. If you can relate to her vision of hell as a place 'in which eternity is a Kindle with a dead battery' and her confession 'Reading wasn't my religion - it was my oxygen', and if you wish to know the answers to questions like:
What do some writers bury in their gardens?
What novel did Linda Grant get from her ex-boyfriend as a breaking-up present?
Which books survived the genocide?
Who are her favourite authors?
... just indulge in ‘I Murdered My Library’.
lokster71's review against another edition
5.0
This is a short book. More of an extended essay. But I have never read anything which spoke to me as directly as this book. It is about books. It is about what they mean both as objects and as the repositories of text.
Linda Grant is moving house and has to 'murder her library'. This is a process I have undertaken myself. When I moved to my new room from the house I lived in I gave away twenty-five boxes of books to a second hand bookshop that would take them. It still hurts. I still have hundreds, possibly thousands, of books here in the room I now live. Every shelf, cupboard and surface has books on it. The mantlepiece has books on it. Three rows of books piled on top of each other buttressed by two columns of books to stop them falling off the edge of the mantlepiece. There are 251 books on the mantlepiece alone. In most respect it is too many books. I'm an unhealthy man in his early 50s. I'm unlikely to read all of the books in this room before I die, let alone buying more books. Books are my comfort. Both as objects and actual content. Perhaps they are a crutch. They are certainly what I spend most of my money on. They are memories and dreams, hopes and fears. They bring me joy and they make me cry. They have provided me with a clogged up memory that is full of information that can only be bought out by pub quizzes it often seems.
That is why Linda Grant's book meant so much to me. It felt like reading my own memoir - but without actually being a writer. At least professionally.
It's a lovely little book. It's not on my shelf though. It is on my Kindle.
Linda Grant is moving house and has to 'murder her library'. This is a process I have undertaken myself. When I moved to my new room from the house I lived in I gave away twenty-five boxes of books to a second hand bookshop that would take them. It still hurts. I still have hundreds, possibly thousands, of books here in the room I now live. Every shelf, cupboard and surface has books on it. The mantlepiece has books on it. Three rows of books piled on top of each other buttressed by two columns of books to stop them falling off the edge of the mantlepiece. There are 251 books on the mantlepiece alone. In most respect it is too many books. I'm an unhealthy man in his early 50s. I'm unlikely to read all of the books in this room before I die, let alone buying more books. Books are my comfort. Both as objects and actual content. Perhaps they are a crutch. They are certainly what I spend most of my money on. They are memories and dreams, hopes and fears. They bring me joy and they make me cry. They have provided me with a clogged up memory that is full of information that can only be bought out by pub quizzes it often seems.
That is why Linda Grant's book meant so much to me. It felt like reading my own memoir - but without actually being a writer. At least professionally.
It's a lovely little book. It's not on my shelf though. It is on my Kindle.
gemmaduds's review against another edition
5.0
A book that had me contemplating my own love of reading and how it began. I enjoyed this reflection on the ownership of books.
lokster71's review
5.0
This is a short book. More of an extended essay. But I have never read anything which spoke to me as directly as this book. It is about books. It is about what they mean both as objects and as the repositories of text.
Linda Grant is moving house and has to 'murder her library'. This is a process I have undertaken myself. When I moved to my new room from the house I lived in I gave away twenty-five boxes of books to a second hand bookshop that would take them. It still hurts. I still have hundreds, possibly thousands, of books here in the room I now live. Every shelf, cupboard and surface has books on it. The mantlepiece has books on it. Three rows of books piled on top of each other buttressed by two columns of books to stop them falling off the edge of the mantlepiece. There are 251 books on the mantlepiece alone. In most respect it is too many books. I'm an unhealthy man in his early 50s. I'm unlikely to read all of the books in this room before I die, let alone buying more books. Books are my comfort. Both as objects and actual content. Perhaps they are a crutch. They are certainly what I spend most of my money on. They are memories and dreams, hopes and fears. They bring me joy and they make me cry. They have provided me with a clogged up memory that is full of information that can only be bought out by pub quizzes it often seems.
That is why Linda Grant's book meant so much to me. It felt like reading my own memoir - but without actually being a writer. At least professionally.
It's a lovely little book. It's not on my shelf though. It is on my Kindle.
Linda Grant is moving house and has to 'murder her library'. This is a process I have undertaken myself. When I moved to my new room from the house I lived in I gave away twenty-five boxes of books to a second hand bookshop that would take them. It still hurts. I still have hundreds, possibly thousands, of books here in the room I now live. Every shelf, cupboard and surface has books on it. The mantlepiece has books on it. Three rows of books piled on top of each other buttressed by two columns of books to stop them falling off the edge of the mantlepiece. There are 251 books on the mantlepiece alone. In most respect it is too many books. I'm an unhealthy man in his early 50s. I'm unlikely to read all of the books in this room before I die, let alone buying more books. Books are my comfort. Both as objects and actual content. Perhaps they are a crutch. They are certainly what I spend most of my money on. They are memories and dreams, hopes and fears. They bring me joy and they make me cry. They have provided me with a clogged up memory that is full of information that can only be bought out by pub quizzes it often seems.
That is why Linda Grant's book meant so much to me. It felt like reading my own memoir - but without actually being a writer. At least professionally.
It's a lovely little book. It's not on my shelf though. It is on my Kindle.
justfoxie's review against another edition
4.0
I can't remember who recommended this essay to me, but it turned out to be highly relevant as my husband and I had just undertaken a similar exercise in April of the library we left behind when we moved to the UK. Granted, we had a much better survival rate and a good 1,000 tomes are awaiting the custom built shelves to be properly set up in our new home, but what surprised me was the poignancy of not just getting rid of a library, but find out that a fundamental truth about oneself has changed. And of course that time is short. Perhaps one of the reasons I've not come to terms with my own mortality is that I know it will mean coming to terms fully with my inability to read everything that I wish.
Highly recommended to dedicated readers at a life turning point.
Highly recommended to dedicated readers at a life turning point.
magistratrium's review against another edition
4.0
Getting rid of books is never easy for those of us who find much of their identity wrapped up in their personal library. Linda Grant addresses many of the same thoughts and feelings I've had in digital vs physical libraries and how to face disposing of books in a world where they are no longer valued.
senspence's review
3.0
Interesting Essay on Books vs. Kindle and contemplating one's mortality
I am currently culling my own physical library so this little book speaks to my current situation. Any avid reader can relate to this, being overrun by books and yet feeling heretical when it comes time to get rid of some.
I am currently culling my own physical library so this little book speaks to my current situation. Any avid reader can relate to this, being overrun by books and yet feeling heretical when it comes time to get rid of some.
exurbanis's review
4.0
(Nonfiction, Bibliophilic, Kindle Single)
When Grant downsized her living space in 2013, she had to purge thousands of her books from her personal library, started when she was a child.
Amazon says: ”Both a memoir of a lifetime of reading and an insight into how interior décor has banished the bookcase, her account of the emotional struggle of her relationship with books asks questions about the way we live today.“
The author is an award winning novelist and nonfiction writer, so this is a well-written and fascinating treatise.
4 stars
When Grant downsized her living space in 2013, she had to purge thousands of her books from her personal library, started when she was a child.
Amazon says: ”Both a memoir of a lifetime of reading and an insight into how interior décor has banished the bookcase, her account of the emotional struggle of her relationship with books asks questions about the way we live today.“
The author is an award winning novelist and nonfiction writer, so this is a well-written and fascinating treatise.
4 stars
sharonbakar's review
4.0
This essay struck such a chord with me - we're moving soon and there won't be as much space for books. Which do I get rid of, and which do I keep? Linda Grant takes a long hard look at her own collection, books that have very much defined who she is, and culls those she feels she can let go. (I have taken on board the lesson she learnt so painfully ... she finds in the end that she has let go of far too many.) Along the way she examines her (read - any booklover's) relationship with both physical books and ebooks.
Any bookaholic will find this a worthwhile read and cautionary tale.
Any bookaholic will find this a worthwhile read and cautionary tale.