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in_and_out_of_the_stash's review against another edition
4.0
I liked the way the books were split into genres, moods etc. but some of the synopsis were not accurate
carolpk's review against another edition
3.0
Author Hallie Ephron certainly gives it the old college try in defining every possible inclination you, the reader, could conceive to match a book to your mood. She may have gone a bit overboard in her zealousness to cover all bases; almost 80 moods are defined.
1001 Books for Every Mood is certainly a nice book to have on hand when you’re looking for something good to read. Quick descriptions will give you a flavor of its offerings. Each book is given ratings based on twelve characteristics. These include useful ones like award winners, humorous, page-tuners, but others are less helpful to me; brainy, bathroom book and even literary merit defined by stars leave me wondering. Each category has its own symbol with a page looking like this:
To say the least 1001 Books for Every Mood is an ambitious undertaking with good intentions. I conducted a few tests of my own to see if the myriad of mood terms would help me choose something to read. So say I’m inclined to reinvent myself. Offerings here include David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale, The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, and even Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Interesting choices, good books, but will they be useful for my reinvention? Ok, let’s Run Away From Home. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Stuart by E. B. White or perhaps, Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes. I'd rather read Angry Housewives Eating Bon-bons by Lorna Landvik.
I’m not certain how useful 1001 Books for Every Mood would be if used for readers’ advisory or for the intended audience as a guide to suit your reading mood. It certainly would give any reader 1,001 books to consider for reading pleasure. That’s a good thing.
seest12's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really good list of books that the author recommends. I have also read Nancy Pearl's two books with book recommendations, and I think I liked this better. This was quick to read through and I found recommendations that seemed to fit me in every chapter. I probably won't know how good the synopses were until I read some of the books. There were a lot of books I had never heard of, plus some I've read.
trudilibrarian's review against another edition
2.0
I love the idea of matching books to mood -- but I guess I just wasn't overly impressed by the choices. For example, in the category "to be afraid, be very afraid" there is no Stephen King. What!? That's just ludicrous. King is a prolific author whose writing can be placed in many categories, but he's consistently been the world's bogeyman for the past 35 years, delighting in scaring the bejesus out of people. If you're in the mood to be badly frightened, King is your man. To omit him from this section really made me doubt Ephron's selection process. The irony is, King's books appear in five other categories, just not the "be very afraid" one.
Ephron also includes Pat Conroy's Beach Music over The Prince of Tides, another dubious choice as the latter is the far better book (I've read them both and loved them both and as a Conroy fan I can say that with confidence).
Ephron labels books as being provocative, influential, humorous, brainy, challenging, as easy reads or page turners, as having literary merit or a bathroom book, she even denotes which books have been made into movies. But such labels are so subjective as to render them almost meaningless. Even if you wanted to use the labels, it's tough because they are not cross-referenced or indexed in any way. If you want to get a list of all the provocative books or the brainy reads, you have to go through each "mood" chapter book by book and look for the appropriate icon.
Disappointing overall.
Ephron also includes Pat Conroy's Beach Music over The Prince of Tides, another dubious choice as the latter is the far better book (I've read them both and loved them both and as a Conroy fan I can say that with confidence).
Ephron labels books as being provocative, influential, humorous, brainy, challenging, as easy reads or page turners, as having literary merit or a bathroom book, she even denotes which books have been made into movies. But such labels are so subjective as to render them almost meaningless. Even if you wanted to use the labels, it's tough because they are not cross-referenced or indexed in any way. If you want to get a list of all the provocative books or the brainy reads, you have to go through each "mood" chapter book by book and look for the appropriate icon.
Disappointing overall.
mkindness's review against another edition
4.0
Obviously not read from cover to cover, but perused heavily and I'll definitely be coming back to this one regularly!
cozylittlebrownhouse's review against another edition
5.0
I don't purchase books too often, but I really liked how this book is arranged and the variety of books described. I am using this as a journal since I have already read so many from the list, and there are still many I would like to read. Like a lighter version of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, book-lovers should own a copy.
My only complaint is that I question Ephron's idea of "literary merit" - I think several of the books she awarded more stars to are no more than beach fluff for women. Still, it is a nice and compact little book review paperback. Good purchase.
My only complaint is that I question Ephron's idea of "literary merit" - I think several of the books she awarded more stars to are no more than beach fluff for women. Still, it is a nice and compact little book review paperback. Good purchase.
bbckprpl's review against another edition
5.0
Read for CB6
At the risk of becoming too meta, I’m going to talk a little bit about one of my go-to books for choosing other books to read.*
I tend to think – judging by the Cannonballers I actually know, the general bookish-ness around here, and the sheer amount of things that Must. Be. Read – that a lot of you CBReaders are similar to me, in that you tend to read quite a bit. (And write rather less often than you should/would like too, but that’s a horse of a different color.) One of the things about being a certain type of bibliophile – the type whose books accumulate on any and every available flat surface, the type who use Excel spreadsheets to cross-reference their TBR piles, the type who could happily wile away an entire day (and easily an entire week’s pay) in the local used book store “just browsing” – is that there are SO MANY CHOICES.
There are so many good books to read, and there are new ones being written everyday. And it seems to me, since I’m on everything from Goodreads to LibraryThing, that someone is always, always, always giving me the name of yet another book I just should be reading. And I love that – an overabundance of choices is a problem I am privileged to have, make no mistake.
But sometimes, I just want to read something funny without worrying that halfway through someone’s going to get Cancer and die.
There are days when I can’t face another minute of beautiful grace and shattered people: I know I don’t have it in me to do the heavy lifting those kind of books require. Other times, the opposite is true – I need to read something about overcoming every shitty thing life throws at you, because there are just no other options, so keep pushing.
Sometimes you want to swim in the shallow end; other times, you want to be immersed in the whole ocean.
And it’s nice to have some guidance when those days come, so you’re not left floundering.
I use a handful of websites, as I mentioned, for things that might strike a particular fancy at a specific moment in time, but I’ve got three books that I’ve been using lately to help me narrow things down, help me figure out if I’m swimming in the right pool. The one I’m talking about today is the one I use the most, and it’s the one mostly focused on adult books (although some children’s literature is included in its recommendations).
1001 Books for Every Mood – is written by Hallie Ephron, and has books broken down every which way you can think of: Looking for something funny, that has both literary merit and is easy enough to read in the bathroom or on the beach? She’s on it. Longing for a challenging, hopeful page-turner? She’s got that covered, too. You feel like wallowing, or suffering; taking a trip, joining the circus, or being redeemed? All acceptable, all answers found within.
Each book is presented with little symbols that judge their compatibility with your mood in different categories – say if it’s ever been made into a movie, or if it’s a family friendly book you might be able to read aloud, or if it’ll keep you thinking or help you to relax. Each is accompanied by a snippet – cunningly, wittily crafted by Ephron – to give you some idea of what the book is about, some clue as to whether it’s the one for you. If it’s the next one for you. If it’s the RIGHT one for you.
She includes facts about the books (have they won any awards, for example) or the authors, or the stories behind the stories “Anyways it’s about not being afraid to live your dream, something we thought quite a lot about back in the ’70s when this was published” she opines regarding Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach. She couples books, yentas them, plays matchmaker as if pairing the fish with a certain type of wine – Read Chris Bohjalian’s Midwives with Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, or Dune with Salt, for optimum enjoyment. She provides humorous quotes from the books, or famous first lines that encourage you to recall if you’ve actually read the book or just heard that line a few million times and should actually give it a shot.
And sure, the book that best suits my mood might not actually be lurking in my current TBR mountain, but I usually manage to find a pretty good substitution, based on what flipping through 1001 Books has made me realize I’m actually looking forward to reading. It’s a neat trick, honestly ~ helping me pick apart my brain enough to decipher what the heck I should be reading next.
In the foreword to the book, NPR’s Susan Stamburg talks about how reading is a form of transportation – magical, creative transportation – and that Ephron is merely providing a way key, a map, a means of navigation for our safe travels. I’ll gladly take them, because having Ephron’s voice as your own personal librarian is off-the-charts awesome.
*And if you want, I can do the books I use to help me make sure I’m covering all the kid lit corners with the Littles in my life, if you guys are interested.
At the risk of becoming too meta, I’m going to talk a little bit about one of my go-to books for choosing other books to read.*
I tend to think – judging by the Cannonballers I actually know, the general bookish-ness around here, and the sheer amount of things that Must. Be. Read – that a lot of you CBReaders are similar to me, in that you tend to read quite a bit. (And write rather less often than you should/would like too, but that’s a horse of a different color.) One of the things about being a certain type of bibliophile – the type whose books accumulate on any and every available flat surface, the type who use Excel spreadsheets to cross-reference their TBR piles, the type who could happily wile away an entire day (and easily an entire week’s pay) in the local used book store “just browsing” – is that there are SO MANY CHOICES.
There are so many good books to read, and there are new ones being written everyday. And it seems to me, since I’m on everything from Goodreads to LibraryThing, that someone is always, always, always giving me the name of yet another book I just should be reading. And I love that – an overabundance of choices is a problem I am privileged to have, make no mistake.
But sometimes, I just want to read something funny without worrying that halfway through someone’s going to get Cancer and die.
There are days when I can’t face another minute of beautiful grace and shattered people: I know I don’t have it in me to do the heavy lifting those kind of books require. Other times, the opposite is true – I need to read something about overcoming every shitty thing life throws at you, because there are just no other options, so keep pushing.
Sometimes you want to swim in the shallow end; other times, you want to be immersed in the whole ocean.
And it’s nice to have some guidance when those days come, so you’re not left floundering.
I use a handful of websites, as I mentioned, for things that might strike a particular fancy at a specific moment in time, but I’ve got three books that I’ve been using lately to help me narrow things down, help me figure out if I’m swimming in the right pool. The one I’m talking about today is the one I use the most, and it’s the one mostly focused on adult books (although some children’s literature is included in its recommendations).
1001 Books for Every Mood – is written by Hallie Ephron, and has books broken down every which way you can think of: Looking for something funny, that has both literary merit and is easy enough to read in the bathroom or on the beach? She’s on it. Longing for a challenging, hopeful page-turner? She’s got that covered, too. You feel like wallowing, or suffering; taking a trip, joining the circus, or being redeemed? All acceptable, all answers found within.
Each book is presented with little symbols that judge their compatibility with your mood in different categories – say if it’s ever been made into a movie, or if it’s a family friendly book you might be able to read aloud, or if it’ll keep you thinking or help you to relax. Each is accompanied by a snippet – cunningly, wittily crafted by Ephron – to give you some idea of what the book is about, some clue as to whether it’s the one for you. If it’s the next one for you. If it’s the RIGHT one for you.
She includes facts about the books (have they won any awards, for example) or the authors, or the stories behind the stories “Anyways it’s about not being afraid to live your dream, something we thought quite a lot about back in the ’70s when this was published” she opines regarding Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach. She couples books, yentas them, plays matchmaker as if pairing the fish with a certain type of wine – Read Chris Bohjalian’s Midwives with Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, or Dune with Salt, for optimum enjoyment. She provides humorous quotes from the books, or famous first lines that encourage you to recall if you’ve actually read the book or just heard that line a few million times and should actually give it a shot.
And sure, the book that best suits my mood might not actually be lurking in my current TBR mountain, but I usually manage to find a pretty good substitution, based on what flipping through 1001 Books has made me realize I’m actually looking forward to reading. It’s a neat trick, honestly ~ helping me pick apart my brain enough to decipher what the heck I should be reading next.
In the foreword to the book, NPR’s Susan Stamburg talks about how reading is a form of transportation – magical, creative transportation – and that Ephron is merely providing a way key, a map, a means of navigation for our safe travels. I’ll gladly take them, because having Ephron’s voice as your own personal librarian is off-the-charts awesome.
*And if you want, I can do the books I use to help me make sure I’m covering all the kid lit corners with the Littles in my life, if you guys are interested.
futurememory's review against another edition
2.0
Fairly good, standard collection of What to Read. I liked some of the more esoteric entries, but some of the recommendations for "moods" seemed like a stretch (for Apocalyptic Vision)?