I enjoyed this a lot. I can see this being very popular with the "books about books" crowd. A definite crowd-pleaser.

I'll read any book about books, and this one seemed really interesting. I did enjoy it, but it dragged a lot in places. It did, however, inspire me to start using a handwritten notebook for my reading again. I'm not sure I'd read other works by this author, but she's definitely my kind of people when it comes to books.

"If I pass a bookstore, I want to go in. When I see an espeically sweet library, my heart swells. Used bookstores contain untold possibilities. Library sales, same thing. There is always room for more books, even though I've barely dented the piles I already have.

Like all collectors, I exist in a perpetual state of want that bears no reasonable relationship to the quantity of unread books mountaining up on my shelves."

This is a book lover's book. I think I highlighted more passages in this gem than I have in any other book this year.

Pamela Paul has always loved books and reading (she now has her dream job of editor of The New York Times Book Review). Early on in life, she started a BOB journal (a Book of Books) listing each and every books she's read.

This book takes us through her life, some of the books she's read, and is simply a delight.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To be a reader and tell anecdotes without name dropping books or authors is simply impossible! Truly! It was wonderful to read a book by someone else who clearly feels the same way. "My Life with Bob" by Pamela Paul tells of the author's relationship with books throughout her life and her creation of Bob- a book of books. She relives various episodes of her life such as feeling isolated as a child, studying abroad, going through a divorce, and having babies while infusing each story with book references. Essentially this is a walk through her book of books and the memories recalled along the way.

I was supposed to read this before it was published- it didn't happen. I blame traveling. I've read it now though and it did inspire me to create my own journal of books! I decided to document my books by what age I was when I read them, starting at 30, so I went back and copied in all the books I read last year as well as the start of this year. In this way, this book has deeply impacted me!

Book argues that a life without books may not be worth living. As a reader, it's hard to debate.

My Thoughts:
I've been on a binge reading spree lately, where I only want to read book about books, and books about reading. I read the synopsis for My Life With Bob, and thought it sounded amazing. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on a copy. The book went above and beyond my expectations. I loved it. I wish that there were more books like it.

My Life With Bob was about being a book lover, but at the same time, it was about so much more than that. It was a fun ride through Pamela Paul's adventures as well, and what she learned along the way. It was a memoir of self discovery, learning how to love yourself, and learning how to cope with difficult problems. I loved every second of it. I also loved hearing about the books that the author read. So many books were added to my tbr pile. I loved seeing the author react to what she was reading, and her fond (or in some cases, not so fond) memories of the books that she read.

I loved My Life With Bob. It had just the right mixture of being about reading, with some adventure thrown in. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to go back to page one, and start all over again, which is unusual for me. I rarely re-read books, but I can definitely see myself re-reading this one. I hope Pamela Paul writes another book about books, maybe once she gets a few more pages written in Bob. I hope to find more books like this in the same genre. I recommend this book to bibliophiles everywhere.

I give My Life With Bob: 5/5.

An autobiography framed by the books the author was reading during various stages of her life. This is a treasure trove for voracious readers who will invariable relate to some of the feelings and situations explored in these pages.

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get into it.

The author has her dream job as Editor of the NY Times Review of Books. She tells her life story through BOB (the book of books) that she has kept from childhood. It's an unflinching look at her life, both mistakes and triumphs. Most of all it is a tribute to the power of books and the love of reading.

Hardcover, 256 pages Pub May 2nd 2017 by Henry Holt and Co. ISBN13: 9781627796316

Coming out at this time of year, Pamela Paul’s memoir is reminiscent of a commencement speech, albeit book-length and one just as interesting for the parents as for the graduates. It is a blast to listen to an obsessive reader share her thoughts on books, her travels and travails. Bob is her lifelong companion and record, her Book of Books, the place she can note what she has read. It gives date of completion, and, because Paul tried to read books about the countries or cities she visits or lives, we deduce a sense of location. It is her book of memories then, a record of where she has been.

Paul was the single daughter born into a family of seven sons. Despite the expected in-house torture and rough-housing, her psyche remained remarkably intact, though her parent’s divorce may have had more effect than discussed here. She did emerge as a reader, an introvert, and from a young age wanted to write. In this book she has boldly decided to write about what she’s read in the context of her life, and astonishingly, it is interesting. We enjoy retracing her faltering steps as a burgeoning adult, in which she recalls with uncommon accuracy the embarrassed and confused feelings of a teen.

France plays a large role in Paul’s life. Although her American Field Service (AFS) experience in a small town in suburban France was not as she imagined, it set the table for her next visit and the one after that. Eventually she found a family in France that became a second home, a family that subsequently attended her weddings and met her children. This kind of close long-term relationship defines Paul, I think. We all have trajectories, but not all of us cultivate the path as we go so that it becomes personal, the impact felt on both sides.

Paul’s decision after college to go directly to Thailand without the usual scramble for underpaid work at home was prescient but daring. She’d not get another chance to see that part of the world with any depth, though the China portion of the trip gave me the screaming heebies. It sounded perfectly horrendous, completely uncomfortable, filled with sickness and incomprehension. The China trip was her father’s idea, and it never became hers. The unmitigated disaster of that trip reminds us that we have to own our journey, start to finish, for us to manage it with any kind of finesse.

There was a marriage that lasted a year. The utter heartbreak Paul experienced does not lacerate us: from the moment she begins to speak of her first husband we are suspicious. She is much too happy much too soon. Love is one thing. Blindness is another. In my mind I modify Thoreau to read: beware all enterprises that require giving up a large, rent-controlled flat in New York City...
"…the minute a subject veered from the fictional world, the private world, the secluded, just-us-on-top-of-the-mountain world, into the greater, grittier territory below, the nonfictional world, my husband and I had serious differences…Even when we each happily read those same books about the perfidy of man, we read them in opposite ways…this kind of book contested my essentially optimistic view of the world rather than overturned it…whereas for him, the world really was that bleak, and the books proved it."
Here you have, folks, a political difference so profound it can break nations in two. Ayn Rand’s work became Paul’s personal standard for judging viewpoints. Paul admits--she who practically worships books--that she threw one of Ayn Rand’s books in the trash after reading it, so that no one else would be polluted by its ideas. I laughed. I did the same thing, though I contemplated burning it before I did. In my tiny garage-turned-apartment in New Mexico, I wrestled with Rand’s horrifying vision of a society of go-getters and decided that to burn her book would invest it with too much significance.

I loved reading about Paul’s poor dating experiences after that. She was inoculated against irrational exuberance after her divorce, but she still wanted intimacy. She manages to share with us chortle-inducing instances of “okay, I’ve had enough of that” with some of the men she met later. My favorite might be the time a boyfriend convinces her that he’d been to the Grand Canyon before and so can show her “the best way to see it.” Har-dee-har-har. This memoir is a great example of smart and funny, gifting us many moments of remembering our own worst histories and reinforcing for younger women coming along that our judgment may be the only thing separating us from a much worse time of it.

Pamela Paul is now books editor of The New York Times and no longer has to struggle to find the coin to buy a new book. She is the best kind of editor for all of us because she is has read widely and acknowledges the draw of genre fiction while communicating her admiration for the range of new nonfiction that helps us cope with our history and our future. She is also an interested and informed consumer of Children’s lit and Young Adult titles, which aids me immeasurably since these are not my specialty and therefore necessitate me seeking assistance from a trusted source.

Access to all there is out there comes with its own set of stresses, but Paul has extended her reach by asking some of the best writers in the country to read and review titles in the NYT Book Review, and to talk about their selections on the Book Review Podcast, available each week from iTunes as an automatic download. Her guests and her own considered opinions help to narrow the field for us.

This is a great vacation read, not at all strenuous, yet it is involving. Imagine the unlikeliness of the concept: an introverted reader and editor writes a book about her life…reading…and it is interesting! Totes amazeballs. It occurs to me that Goodreads is one big Bob. I’m so glad Paul put the effort in to share with us: big mistakes don’t have to be the end of the world. It depends what happens after that. See what I mean about commencement?

There's a woman who lived next door to my dad and every time she was in his house she would gaze wide-eyed at the packed bookshelves and say, "I can't believe he's read ALL of these books!" One glance at his bookshelves & she was astonished as if one lifetime isn't enough time to finish what she was looking at. Little did she know, those four bookshelves held probably 1% of what he had read in his life. He was always reading something. Always.

To my Dad's neighbor, I would not recommend this book because she wouldn't get it. She's obviously not a big reader or she wouldn't have been so impressed by those bookshelves. To the people who spend a good deal of time on Goodreads, I would recommend this book.

Have you ever seen the Twilight Zone episode called "Time Enough At Last", where Burgess Meredith locks himself in a bank vault to read his book in peace, and after hearing an explosion he walks out of the vault to find he's the last man on earth? If you watched that episode and your reaction when he stumbled upon a library full of books was, "Hmm... that post-apocalypse might not be so bad...", then I recommend this book to you. Pamela Paul isn't just a reader, at times she seems to favor books over most people much of the time.

And then There's Bob, the Book of Books. Bob is an idea from which sites like Goodreads evolved. I think a lot of people probably set out to keep a journal or record of the books they read, I certainly wish I had done a better job throughout my life. Pamela Paul actually did it. She and her Bob have been together through thick and thin. I really admire her having kept track of her reading and having an aid to help reference those memories of when and where she read different titles. That's the reason I love Goodreads. I want to keep track of what I've read and the reactions that every text evokes in me. I think it's a great idea.

Before I began reading, I had concerns that I would not follow some chapters because there were so many books I'd never read. There were also some on my To-Read list that I haven't gotten around to yet. This is her own memoir and she doesn't go into much depth on the books she lists. They're more of a reference point on the direction of her life at that time. I enjoyed the book because I can relate. Like in the Twilight Zone episode, we are a different breed, we book people. Give us an apocalypse and we'll find a well stocked library before we forage for food.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy for review.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Pamela Paul for the opportunity to read this wonderful book! I absolutely adored it!

While in junior high, Pamela Paul decided to keep a Book of Books (Bob) and record all of the books that she read. This book goes through the journey of her life and how what she was reading and even how she was reading it correlated to what she was experiencing in real life.

But the very best part of this book for me is being able to relate to someone else who loves books like I do. Everything from her childhood spent indoors reading and at the library to the feelings of not being well-enough read no matter how much you read, and working for the main purpose to buy more books. I just loved the way she wrote about books because only someone who loves books can understand why we can't just give our books away (and why I justify paying monthly storage fees for mine!). I do have some book journals that I kept for years before Goodreads came along but I'm so jealous that I don't have a complete Bob!

Although the author is the current editor of the New York Times Book Review (big sigh for the perfect job of getting paid to read!), she never puts down what others read even when they may not be for her (or the person might not be for her because of what they read!). And she loves depressing books too!

This is a true gem of a book that is the perfect gift for book lovers - very highly recommended and loved!

I really loved MY LIFE WITH BOB by Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review. Paul has written an entertaining memoir about her reading experiences, chronicled in "Bob," her Book Of Books. Since high school, she has kept track of the titles she reads and shares related vignettes, including travels in Europe and Asia and generally coping with life. She says, "I went from escaping into books to extracting things from them, from being inspired by books to trying to do things that inspired me – many of which I first encountered in stories. I went from wishing I were like a character in books to being a character in my books. I went from reading books to wrestling with them, all the while still learning from what I read." Our work as librarians and educators is so important because we try to inspire and encourage that same lifelong experience for our students.

I think anyone who considers himself or herself a reader would really enjoy and relate to this tale. They, too, might smile when reading another favorite comment: "Rainy days were a godsend because you could curl up on a sofa without being banished into the outdoors with an ominous 'Go play outside.'" MY LIFE WITH BOB is truly a tribute to books and their power to impact our lives, sometimes in unexpected ways. Paul's work received a starred review from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

A delightful story about the authors list of every book she ever read. The characters are well developed and the writing is very tight. A very enjoyable piece. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

What a wonderfully enjoyable book. I relate so much to Ms. Paul's thoughts about reading, cataloging books, sharing recommendations, and choosing which to read next. There were long passages I read incredulously; it was like they came from my own brain. I, too, keep a running log of all my books, though it has morphed over time from a handwritten journal to Goodreads. It is both a record that prevents me from reading books twice by accident (d'oh!)... and, more importantly, allows me to look back on past reading endeavors. It is a virtual list treasured by me as Pamela's Bob is by her.
I should read more books about books, providing I can find more as well-written as this.

A nice read about the life-long impact of reading. Bibliophiles will be nodding along as the author elucidates how and why books have such importance in the lives of readers. I thinking I was expecting (and hoping for?) more focus on the texts and less memoir-type content, but if you're looking for more of a literary memoir than for recommendations, this is the book for you!

I adored My Life with Bob. I easily identified with the author about her reading habits and the books she read as a child that she could be my twin. It's so enjoyable to read about a fellow reader who gets the fascination with books. Pamela Paul keeps a list of books she has read, her Book of Books. I keep a list as well, although on the computer and through Goodreads. So many books, not enough time.

I received an advance reading copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review. I was disappointed in the way the book was promoted. The write-up indicated that this book would explain why readers pick the books they pick. I thought this was rather intriguing as I am a writer, as well as a dedicated reader. Instead, I found the author rambled on about her choice of books during various stages of her life. It just sounded like a series of blogs put together in book form. On the other hand, it did make me think hard about the books I have read in the past including those I picked up in grade school and high school--books I hadn't thought about in a long time. As to why people pick the types of books they do--that remains a mystery. If you liked 'Eat, Pray, Love' (I did not) or 'Wild' (I didn't read), than maybe you might enjoy this one. People roaming around searching for themselves just isn't my cup of tea. Sorry!

This one snuck up on me -- I expected to like it, and I did, but when I finished it, I put it down and went on to the next book. By the time I got around to writing up a review, I wanted to revisit a few parts of the book. I ended up rereading the entire book, only two weeks after I had finished it. I rarely reread books, even classics, because there are just so many new books to get to. So how could I justify spending valuable book time rereading a bookish memoir? I didn't justify it, it just happened.

Pamela Paul is either very modest or very lucky, because the job of children's editor at The New York Times seems to have dropped in her lap, followed by the job of Book Editor at the NYT. But that doesn't figure into My Life With Bob very much -- rather, this is a memoir of her life with books as a backdrop. The books she was reading at various points in her life serve to sometimes amplify, or provide counterpoint, or sometimes distract. They are just there, as much a part of her life as the people and places.

This is an excellent addition to the genre of books about reading that includes Will Schwalbe's Books for Living, Phyllis Rose's The Shelf, and Andy Miller's The Year of Reading Dangerously, as well as the shorter The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri and I Murdered My Library by Linda Grant.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for a digital review copy.)

It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a great while a book comes along that seems to have been written just for you. It may be a book about some obscure hobby of yours that you figured no one else in the world cared about, or about some equally obscure figure from the past you imagined no one remembered (much less actually cared about) but you. And in the unlikeliest of all cases, it might be a book - imagine it now, a whole book - about some weird habit of yours that you seldom speak of in public. It is exactly that last possibility that happened to me with Pamela Paul’s My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues. Who knew there was another person in the world maintaining a decades-old list of every book they ever read?

Paul, editor of the New York Times Book Review, began keeping her Book of Books (the “Bob” referenced in this memoir’s title) in 1988 when she was just a high school junior. (As a point of reference, I began my own “Bob” in 1970, a few months before I turned twenty-one.) Paul describes Bob as “factory-made, gray and plain, with a charcoal binding and white unlined paper, an inelegant relic from the days before bookstores stocked Moleskine notebooks,” exactly the kind of non-descript little book, I suspect, guaranteed to remain forever safe from the prying eyes of outsiders.

In twenty-two chapters, each chapter carrying the title of one of the books listed in Bob, Paul exhibits just how precisely she is able to reconstruct segments of her past by studying Bob’s pages. Each of the books chosen for chapters of their own remind the author of where she was both “psychologically and geographically” when she first read them. By studying the list to see which books she read before and after the highlighted title, Paul can easily see whether the earlier books put her in the mood for more of the same or pushed her toward reading something very different. Too, if her reading choices moved in a new direction, she can quickly determine how long that new interest or trend lasted. And she confirmed something concerning one’s memory about which most avid readers will readily agree: Keeping a list of fiction read does very little to solidify the recall of characters or plot details – what it does do is provide a better understanding of changes in one’s own “character.”

My Life with Bob is an intimate look into the life of a woman who has made books and reading the central core of her life. She has had many roles during her life: student, daughter, wife, mother, etc., but I suspect that she takes equal joy in knowing that reader is an essential term others would use to describe who she is – and always has been.

Readers are a curious lot, and one of the things we are most curious about is what others are reading. We cannot resist browsing the bookshelves of those whose homes we visit, often altering our opinions (either upwardly or downwardly) about those being visited according to what we see on their shelves. We find ourselves straining to read the titles of books on shelves sitting behind pictures of celebrities and politicians because we know that people are more likely to reveal their true nature and level of curiosity by what they choose to display on their private bookshelves than by what comes out of their mouths. We can’t help ourselves; that’s the way we are.

If you are one of those people, you are going to love My Life with Bob because Pamela Paul is a kindred spirit who gets it.