Books about Books

Agonising over what to read next? Our library has books to help you choose your next favourite author. Try:

• Who Else Writes Like?...A Readers' Guide to Fiction Authors; 
  
• or The New Torchlight List: In Search of the Best Modern Authors; 
  
•  or 501 Must-Read Books. 
  
• Books for Living: A Reader's Guide to Life is a celebration of reading as well as an impassioned recommendation of specific books.
  

There are books about fascinating libraries and bookshops throughout the world:  

• The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World is a treasure trove; 
  
• Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library will have you laughing out loud; 
  
• and BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google is a wake-up call. 
  

Don't forget our local libraries:

• Ka Taoka Hakena = Treasures from the Hocken Collection; 
  
• and our very own Freedom to Read: A Centennial History of Dunedin Public Library. 
  

Books about bookshops have a great appeal too: 

• Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books is set in Wales; 
  
• My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate their Favourite Places To Browse, Read and Shop is great fun; 
  
• and Browse: The World in Bookshops captures the magic.
  

If you love book illustrations, I can recommend:

• Cats in Books: A Celebration of Cat Illustration through the Ages;  
  
• Arthur Rackham: A Life with Illustration; 
  
• and Shepard's War: E H Shepard: The Man Who Drew Winnie-the-Pooh. 
  

New Zealand illustrators are awe-inspiring, try:

• The Life and Art of Lynley Dodd;  
  
• Coverup: The Art of the Book Cover in New Zealand; 
  
• and Dunedin author and illustrator David Elliot's winning book Snark: Being a True History of the Expedition that Discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock...and its Tragic Aftermath. 
  

Our books on illuminated books are gorgeous, especially The Art of Illumination: An Anthology of Manuscripts from the Sixth to the Sixteenth Century.

Bookbinding has a long and interesting history. Read more in Beautiful Bookbindings: A Thousand Years of the Bookbinder's Art;
or try making your own book - Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures and Forms. 

Of course books themselves have influenced history in so many ways. You can't go past Books that Changed History: From The Art of War to Anne Frank's Diary.

 Of course I have to throw in some tributes to librarians: 

• The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race To Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts; 
  
• The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family; 
  
• and When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War Two.