Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

 

This ended up being so much more than I thought it would be. Illustrated Miscellany really is an apt way of describing this ambitious work, which tackles everything from illustrations of bookstacks, to book recommendations from book lovers, to illustrators of cover designs for famous books, to lists of famous bookstores all over the world, to examples of books by genre in everything from fantasy to romance to food writing.

For the most part, I really liked this book. There's a lot of amazing trivia packed in here. Like I didn't know William S. Burroughs subscribed to Cat Fancy magazine or that Shel Silverstein was an illustrator for Playboy. There was also a solid attempt at inclusion with many books written by authors of color.

It was a lengthy and entertaining read and I learned a lot about books (and added a couple new ones to my TBR). It's always nice when an impulsive purchase pays off. (Also, unlike some illustrated books that are formatted for Kindle, this one reads quite nicely in e-format.)

4 out of 5 stars