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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Okay, I didn't actually read the whole book, but have skimmed it enough to know that I want to own it. In addition to literary remedies for physical and mental ailments, the book has delightful recommendations for reading ailments (Being a Compulsive Book Buyer; Fear of Sci-Fi) and Top Ten lists for each decade of one's life and other occasions - including audiobooks to cure road rage or drown out your partner's snoring. In sum, bibliotherapists Berthoud and Elderkin have compiled a witty and useful guide for not only what to read, but also what to reread.
2024 review: I finally read this guide to complete Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge (prompt: book about books). I'm glad I own it.
2024 review: I finally read this guide to complete Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge (prompt: book about books). I'm glad I own it.
Quirky, this offers a fun way to expand one’s reading list. The author list every type of emotion you can imagine and creates a reading list on it including anxiety, fear, joy, happiness, sleeplessness, and more are covered.
Helps explain why sometimes we choose a certain book. It’s just what we’re in the mood for. It’s just what we need at that time. Bibliotherapy explained.
Helps explain why sometimes we choose a certain book. It’s just what we’re in the mood for. It’s just what we need at that time. Bibliotherapy explained.
A charming, ‘novel’ approach to reading-this literary reference book is organized as a self-help guide to cures for all that ails you. Indeed, the subtitle of the book is: “From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You”. Hailed as ‘bibliotherapy’, Berthoud and Elderkin suggest books to help cure everything from boredom, teen angst, stubborn toes, marital woes, even baldness! Reading through the book, it is clear that the authors are book lovers, and perceptive ones at that; many of the suggested books are excellent. There is even an accompanying website that will organize a booklist for what ails you! A clever, fun, thoughtful book.
The Pareto principle seems to show up in every avenue of life. I've found that 80%-85% of what I read is non-fiction, and the other 20%-15% is fiction. Didn't always be this way, but the "real world" always seemed to trump the imaginery for me, at least after high school.
"The Novel Cure" may be the most persusaive argument i've read in some time for fiction. Yes there's empathy, vocabulary, and good cheap time, but there is so much nuance and things to find in fiction.
There are 751 books here discussed in greater detail than I can give justice to. But the format is excellent. The "Top Ten" lists really appealed to me, as someone who loves databases and has a list-centric life. The Reading Ailments index....ah yes, so many to relate to. Non-reading partners, giving up on books, the condition of the book. So much drama with being a reader isn't there.
Berthoud and Elderkin submit their own zingers and ponderous connections between the books and the wisom them hold. This is really the best part of the book. There's so much humor (the recommendation to avoid childbirth in multiple passages, wry sexual humor everywhere, and their no nonsense, ball-busting of sentimentality. It's modern, chic, fun. And oh, there are so many labels of things I had never considered for book categories: "on being short", "organized: being too", "road rage". When you get tired of seeing the same 15-25 books addressed on Reddit or Buzzfeed next January, I highly recommend this collection.
"The Novel Cure" may be the most persusaive argument i've read in some time for fiction. Yes there's empathy, vocabulary, and good cheap time, but there is so much nuance and things to find in fiction.
There are 751 books here discussed in greater detail than I can give justice to. But the format is excellent. The "Top Ten" lists really appealed to me, as someone who loves databases and has a list-centric life. The Reading Ailments index....ah yes, so many to relate to. Non-reading partners, giving up on books, the condition of the book. So much drama with being a reader isn't there.
Berthoud and Elderkin submit their own zingers and ponderous connections between the books and the wisom them hold. This is really the best part of the book. There's so much humor (the recommendation to avoid childbirth in multiple passages, wry sexual humor everywhere, and their no nonsense, ball-busting of sentimentality. It's modern, chic, fun. And oh, there are so many labels of things I had never considered for book categories: "on being short", "organized: being too", "road rage". When you get tired of seeing the same 15-25 books addressed on Reddit or Buzzfeed next January, I highly recommend this collection.
This book is fun if you take it for what it is. It's not exactly a page turner that will leave you clutching the edges in anticipation of what happens next, but it also isn't a literal health cure - I doubt anyone has ever gotten out of debt or a panic attack by reading a novel. So don't expect this to solve your problems either.
What the book is, however, is a nice starting ground if you're unsure of what to read next. Particularly, if you're a rather new reader (especially when it comes to fiction) like myself, this book provides a ton of inspiration for what to read next. They offer some good synopses, at least enough to pique an interest and have you read a full description on a publisher's website. There are a few times where their review spoils part of the book, annoyingly, or times where barely any information is given, but it balances out.
My only real complaint is that after a while you really notice the author's preference for genre. Although it claims to provide examples from all over the literary world, if they made me read one more synopsis about a young woman coming of age and discovering herself in the early 20th century, I would have put my head through a wall. Conversely, the amount of sci fi or fantasy books recommend could probably be counted on one hand (unless you count the hastily thrown in "Ten Best Fantasy Novels" list which offer zero description outside of book title and author).
All together, an interesting read which greatly expanded my 'To Read' list on here and provided some inspiration for future reading. You don't necessarily need to read it cover to cover like I did, but just browse a few pages here and there until your interest is sparked.
What the book is, however, is a nice starting ground if you're unsure of what to read next. Particularly, if you're a rather new reader (especially when it comes to fiction) like myself, this book provides a ton of inspiration for what to read next. They offer some good synopses, at least enough to pique an interest and have you read a full description on a publisher's website. There are a few times where their review spoils part of the book, annoyingly, or times where barely any information is given, but it balances out.
My only real complaint is that after a while you really notice the author's preference for genre. Although it claims to provide examples from all over the literary world, if they made me read one more synopsis about a young woman coming of age and discovering herself in the early 20th century, I would have put my head through a wall. Conversely, the amount of sci fi or fantasy books recommend could probably be counted on one hand (unless you count the hastily thrown in "Ten Best Fantasy Novels" list which offer zero description outside of book title and author).
All together, an interesting read which greatly expanded my 'To Read' list on here and provided some inspiration for future reading. You don't necessarily need to read it cover to cover like I did, but just browse a few pages here and there until your interest is sparked.
Found a few new books to read. Liked the "Top 10 Lists." Not a book I read word for word as some topics weren't of any interest or relevance to me.
This just wasn't for me, as much as I wanted it to be. As a librarian who loves doing readers' advisory, I was familiar with bibliotherapy and I liked the concept of this book. The execution just wasn't my cup of tea. And, overall, neither were the recommendations. As some other reviewers have mentioned, I don't know how cool it is to joke that reading The Shining will cure someone of alcoholism. The authors also made some mistakes about the plots of some pretty famous books, which was jarring and left me feeling like I couldn't quite trust their recommendations, even if they were being tongue in cheek. This was a miss for me.
inspiring
medium-paced
Once in a while when I'm in a bookshop I have some silly caprice (I hear my wife correcting me: "always", she says). So, yesterday, I bought this rather bulky book full of tips for further reading, as if I don't have enough books on my want-to-read-list already. But this is a special one: it's written by 2 British bibliotherapists, and it suggests you can cure every psychological or even physical affection by reading novels.
Now, it is no revolutionary view that reading fiction broadens your horizon, sharpens your capability of empathy, offers a mental path to escape dreary reality, and in doing so helps to tone down problems and affections. You don't have to convince me of that. But going one step further and stating that reading is a cure for everything, well, there I'm lost. I'm not saying this book does just that, because reading it, you can sense a lot or irony and humor in it (and I appreciate that!), but the introduction and some of the lemma's suggest the authors present themselves as real doctors. So, I have some mixed feelings about this book.
But for now, forget these pitiful remarks, just read it, and have fun, because it IS well documented (all books clearly have been read, and that is not self-evident), it is broad in its range of literature, and in its range of affections. Enjoy! (and let yourself be cured from whatever affliction)
Now, it is no revolutionary view that reading fiction broadens your horizon, sharpens your capability of empathy, offers a mental path to escape dreary reality, and in doing so helps to tone down problems and affections. You don't have to convince me of that. But going one step further and stating that reading is a cure for everything, well, there I'm lost. I'm not saying this book does just that, because reading it, you can sense a lot or irony and humor in it (and I appreciate that!), but the introduction and some of the lemma's suggest the authors present themselves as real doctors. So, I have some mixed feelings about this book.
But for now, forget these pitiful remarks, just read it, and have fun, because it IS well documented (all books clearly have been read, and that is not self-evident), it is broad in its range of literature, and in its range of affections. Enjoy! (and let yourself be cured from whatever affliction)
informative
fast-paced