Books about Books Freshen your Group's discussions

Looking for a common thread, or a new direction everyone is likely to enjoy? 

One way to spice up reading choices is for members to read and discuss a book about … books. How natural is that? 

There are dozens—not all good—but often they are witty, informative, or wonderfully mysterious. I enjoyed Carlos Ruiz Zafron’s “The Shadow of the Wind,” about a conspiracy in the world of antiquarian books, but there are many other choices.

“An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England” by Brock Clark is fun to read, though it may give the caretakers of these historical houses the shudders. From the beginning, it’s downright witty: “I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and who in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison and, as letters from scholars of American literature tell me, for which I will continue to pay a high price long into the not-so-sweet hereafter.”

Others I’ve liked (with an attempt to present a wide selection, leaving out some I think most people have read, and others that I just didn’t care for):

“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield;
“The Historian,” Elizabeth Kostova; 
“The Book Thief,” Markus Zusak;
“The History of Love,” Nicole Krauss;”
 “Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury;
“The Book Borrower,” Alice Mattison.

The following are on my to-read list: “Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader,” by Anne Fadiman; “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore,” Robin Sloan (dubbed “a literary adventure story for the twenty-first century” and just published; “Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books,” Paul Collins; “Bound to Last: Thirty Writers on Their Most cherished Books;” “A Skeptic’s Guide to Writers’ Houses,” Anne Trubek; “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession,” Allison Hoover Bartlett; “The Summer We Read Gatsby,” Danielle Ganek (look it up, book clubbers!); “The Night Bookmobile,” Audrey Nieffenegger (author of “The Time Traveler”); “Ex-Libris,” by Ross King (the same title as Fadiman’s book, but this time involving history, mystery, treachery and books); “The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary,” Simon Winchester (I couldn’t resist buying it); and, just for you all, “The Jane Austen Book Club,” Karen Joy Fowler—about, of course, a book group. The idea can be done to death, just like novels with cooking themes and endless series featuring cute detectives or sexy spies, but many of these books are good reads; it’s as if anyone who dares write about books reveres them enough to do it well.

Another fascinating title—a must-read, for the name as well as the author, Nick Hornby: “The Polysyllabic Spree: A Hilarious and True Account of One Man’s Sturggle with the Monthly Tide of the Books He’s Bought and the Books He’s Been Meaning to Read.” It’s Hornby (“High Fidelity,” “About a Boy”), so it has to be interesting!

This list is by no means inclusive—space prevents that. Suggest your own. If it sounds good, I’ll get it in down the road!

Book groups around northcentral Massachusetts:

New Earth Book Club meets April 3 at Shrewsbury Public Library, 6:30 p.m., to discuss “Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living” by Pema Chodron. The group just discussed Dr. Eban Alexander’s “Proof of Heaven,” which is making reading lists across the board from spiritual to popular reads.

Greater Worcester Humanists’ Books It! Group will meet at 11 a.m. Sunday, April 28, to discuss “The Science of Good and Evil” by Michael Shermer. Group gathers at the Nu Café, Old Tatnuck Bookseller, 335 Chandler St., Worcester. Limited to 12 members of GWH.

Douglas Library Book Group will consider Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” at Simon Fairfield Library, 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 9. Call 508-476-2695 for a copy of the book. New members welcome. Homemade refreshments, inspired by the book, will be served.

The Women’s Issues Book Group, supported by the Worcester Chapter of the National Organization for Women, will discuss the actual family living at “Downton Abbey” at its April 8 meeting. The book is “Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle,” by Lady Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon. PBS offers a companion series called “Secrets of Highclere Castle.” Meeting is at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 541 Lincoln St., Worcester.

Heywood Library Reading Group in Gardner, reports Ann Young, has chosen as its April 24 selection Hillary Jordan’s “Mudbound,” set in Mississippi after World War II. Meetings are held at the library the last Wednesday of each month at 4:30 p.m. Public welcome.