With Dunedin’s recent designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, it seems a fitting time to reflect upon the role that books and reading play in our lives.

As Samuel Johnson wrote back in 1754, “books have always a secret influence on the understanding … the ideas which are often offered to the mind, will at last find a lucky moment when it is disposed to receive them.” (Adventurer no. 137)

“Bibliomemoir” is a new word for the kind of book that demonstrates just how strong this secret influence can be. In memoirs, writers provide intimate insight into their personal lives, but in bibliomemoirs, reading adds another dimension to those lives. Authors of bibliomemoirs explore the joy of voracious and indiscriminate reading in youth, the inspiration offered by fictional characters or the subjects of biographies, and how the ideas they have engaged with whilst reading have permeated their own thinking. Reading bibliomemoirs is like having a conversation with a good friend about books. Some of the books you know and also love, others you know you may never read: it makes you think about the books that have helped shape you. There has in the last few years been a minor boom in the publication of such books.

Samantha Ellis, author of How to be a Heroine: or, What I've Learned from Reading too Much, set out to reread the books she read as a child and young adult. She humorously pits heroines against each other: Jane Eyre versus Cathy Earnshaw, Anne Shirley versus Jo March. Ellis also examines the influence female writers, such as Sylvia Plath, have had over her and she considers both the positive and negative influences of her heroines. This is a nostalgic tale, which not only considers the classics, but also the popular or cult classics of the 1970s and 80s.

Part-time New Zealander Rick Gekoski also begins Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir with his childhood reading. He moves chronologically to his reading of philosophy and psychoanalysis, and onto his thriller addiction, reflecting throughout on how his reading has affected his decision-making. Gekoski is a deep thinker, but also a delightfully funny storyteller; his snaffling of his kids’ copy of Matilda makes very entertaining reading.

Andy Miller’spersonal “List of Betterment” (or books he had always meant to read) grew from ten books to fifty, and became the basis for A Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-so-great Ones) Saved My Life. Like many young parents, Andy Miller felt like he had forgotten how to read; that is, he had forgotten what it is like to get lost in a good book. Miller records his thoughts (originally for a blog) about the books he challenges himself to read. He also reflects upon the challenge of becoming a reader again and reading outside of your own comfort zone.

Jackie McMillan

Collection Specialist

Other bibliomemoirs to try:

Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home. Susan Hill

My Reading Life. Pat Conroy

The Reading Promise: 3,218 Nights of Reading with My Father. Alice Ozma

The Road to Middlemarch: My Life with George Eliot. Rebecca Mead

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading. Nina Sankovitch

The Year of Reading Proust: A Memoir in Real Time, and The Shelf: From LEQ to LES. Phyllis Rose

And two websites for more on bibliomemoirs:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/blog/index.php/2014/01/30/for-the-joy-of-reading-12-bibliomemoirs/

http://storyacious.com/books-read-lives-lead-bibliomemoirs-1/