Thursday, March 08, 2007

Book Review: "The Book of Books"

I can say that Les Krantz and Tim Knight's The Book of Books is precisely what the subtitle says it should be: "An Eclectic Collection of Reading Recommendations, Quirky Lists, and Fun Facts about Books." It's more the first two than the third. This is basically a collection of (very short) lists of books connected by some theme or characteristic. A few are taken from other organizations and 'annotated' here by Krantz and Knight, but most seem to be new. The quibbles to be had with lists like this are infinite, so I won't start them; on the whole, this is a somewhat useful reader's guide if you happen to stumble upon a theme you're interested in. It's skewed heavily toward the popular reading, not surprisingly.