'The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons' by Princeton Architectural Press makes a bold claim for a book that only has 144 pages, but it's a fun read anyway.

With cartoons by over 30 artists from publications like New Yorker magazine and The Weekly Standard, this is a collection that makes fun of literary heroes and struggling authors doing things like book signings. Poetry takes it on the chin in a few, as does writer's block (and reader's block in a particularly funny cartoon I could relate to).

I liked this collection of cartoons about writers and reading. The art style varies from artist to artist, but each comic gets a full page in the collection.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Princeton Architectural Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

LOVE this collection. Laughed out loud at several. Looking forward to giving copies to my teacher and book-lover friends.
Thanks NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

A fun read for readers, writers and book lovers. I read through it twice as I really enjoyed the cartoons. This would make a cute and nice gift for someone.

Clever cartoons that send up everything from book clubs to ebook readers to author signings. I hadn't seen any of these before so that was fun. Most just made me smile a bit - the only one that actually made me laugh was the Poe one.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for a honest and unbiased review. Thank you!

I was expecting more book-based cartoons, but as the introduction informed me these are mostly bookSTORE based. Not bad, but probably more amusing for employees/frequenters of those.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.

As a book lover we take any opportunity to read ‘books on books’! Cartoons are even more accessible and ‘The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons’ would make a great addition to any coffee table, providing some stimulating conversation over a cuppa.

Much of the humour in these selected cartoons centres more on the writing process rather than the reading process. There is a great deal about authors (some famous like Shakespeare or Hemingway) and the trials and tribulations of the publishing world. It is enjoyable, however, not quite up to Debbie Tung’s ‘Book Love’, which really was all about being a bookworm.

All up this is a fun collection of thought provoking comics that is light and easy to read. If you are a book lover, or especially a writer or someone involved in the publishing industry, you will surely appreciate many scenarios contained within these pages.


This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release

3.5 stars rounded up. I enjoyed the cartoons about books in this 'ultimate' collection. The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons (can we get a more redundant title?) stayed interesting because over 25 cartoonists and different styles were featured.

There were lots of smiles, but no roaring LOL moments where I disturbed others on the plane. Some cartoons were amusing, some VERY clever, some probably went over my head. One frame cartoons covered the reading world from authors to publishing to book groups to book stores. It was fun to bookmark some favorites and I keep going back to them.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for granting access to an arc of this book for an honest review.

The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Books Cartoons by the World's Greatest Cartoonists, Edited by Bob

Eckstein published by Princeton Architectural Press is a wonderful book if you love books and cartoons; written with the purpose of celebrating books in every possible ways.

There are cartoons portraying Amazon, libraries, bookstores; Ernest Hemingway is celebrated close to Oscar Wilde; there are ladies of a Book Club discussing of their latest reading while sipping peacefully some tea. A mice is keeping company to the owner of a bookstore and the lady with some books on his hands sounds a bit suprised.
There are men in a libraries choosing a book from a shelf.
There is an author, a dog, pretty listened during a bark bark, woof woof meeting with serious intellectuals.
There is a man substantially buried by books with reader's block; maybe he is taken prisoner by million and million of words by the most diversified authors!
Someone else remark that no, his daddy is not a sportman. He reads.
Another cartoon will tell the story of these two friends: a man confesses to his best mate that he loves poetry but just when it is funny.
A woman cries to the man she is leaving her that she doesn't need him because she has a book deal.
We will meet an Hamlet transported in our times and with the necessity of buying some books, but...Amazon or not Amazon? That is the question.

Intellectually provoking this love letters to book through cartoons has seen the participation of 33 cartoonists like: Sam Gross, Roz Chast, Peter Steiner, Mick Stevens Bob Mankoff, most of them published constantly in the New Yorker. These cartoons will enchant you.
If you are in love for books, trust me, you know you can do that, I know that this book will become one of your favorite ones!

Highly recommended.

I thank NetGalley for this ebook.

As a book lover who absolutely loves cartoons, especially books about cartoons, this seemed like it would be an immediate 5 star read. Insert outdated Xzibit meme about I put books in your books in your books.

The trouble is, if this is the ultimate cartoon book of book cartoons, I would like to see the cartoons that didn't make it.

Some of these are certainly funny, but a lot of these feel like they were written by out of touch people who want to either make fun of people for reading too much or not reading enough. It's stodgy and out of touch.

If you want to read a book about loving books in cartoon form, might I recommend Book Love by Debbie Tung? It will give you the funnies and the heart warming, with much less confusion face.

A collection of cartoons about authors, readers, book characters, editors, publishers, and booksellers.

This was a mixed bag for me. I thought some were quite funny, others earned an entertained smile, others were meh, and a few I could have done without. Some of these evidently appeared before in the New Yorker and all are the kind of thing you could expect to find in that kind of publication. They are aimed at mature adults with humor that’s shooting to be witty and a little highbrow. I think a good portion of the cartoons in this collection would fly over the heads of the teens and tweens who are the main users of the school library I work in so I don’t think I’ll be purchasing it for my library. However, I can totally see those who are authors, who work in the book publishing industry, or who work in book stores finding this collection hilarious. Libraries that serve a large adult population will also want to consider this book. (Though, sorry librarians, no library cartoons in here.)

Notes on content [based on the ARC]: One minor swear word. 3 pages with some cartoon nudity. No violence (well, unless you want to count that one cartoon saying someone got caught under a collapsed shelf).

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you are an avid reader or book lover, you will relate to the cartoons that Bob Eckstein has collected in The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons by the World's Greatest Cartoonists. Eckstein features several dozen cartoonists whose cartoons have appeared in various publications. The New Yorker magazine is where most of these originated. If you have an idea of the style of the cartoons they publish, then you have an idea of this book.

Several themes show up throughout the book. The quirky interactions of author appearances and book signings. The loss of the traditional bookstores, either to online retailers or to "bookstores" that sell all manner of things besides books. The struggles of the lives of authors and editors. The lifestyle of someone who simply likes to read.

As Eckstein writes in the introduction, "Long live books, bookstores, and cartoons!" Book lovers understand.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

An interesting collection of book focus cartoons. Overall, enjoyed it., but to be honest they had a lot of similarities and tended to skim after awhile. Not a book to pick up and read through, but would be fun for a quick pick up and put down type of book. Would recommend.

A highly entertaining collection of book and author related cartoons by familiar cartoonists. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

With my love of books, I thought at first I would think was more hilarious than it was.

But it had several really funny gems, and it got funnier as I read.

If you’re a book lover, you should check this out for in-jokes about books we love, jokes about hoarding books, books about publishing books, and everything in between.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Princeton Architectural Press for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

A fun collection of single panel cartoons focused on books, authors, and readers. The kind of things you might find in the New Yorker, with work by Roz Chast and S. Gross appearing a lot. Fun.

From the publisher:
Description

This exuberant collection of cartoons is an enthusiastic love letter to books and bookstores. The cartoons celebrate and critique the literary world through the work of thirty-three of the masters of cartoon art, including Sam Gross, Roz Chast, Arnie Levin, Danny Shanahan, Peter Steiner, Mick Stevens, Nick Downes, Liza Donnelly, Bob Mankoff, and Michael Maslin. Many of the cartoons have been published in the New Yorker, while others are published here for the first time.

I agree with the description above. I think that those of us who enjoy all things book and publishing related will enjoy the humor in this collection. I know that I did!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for helping me to smile! The opinions are my own.

Delightful and very funny book of single-panel cartoons on books, book shops, authors, writing, and reading. There are tons of item from familiar names but plenty from less-well known cartoonists.

It doesn't take very long to read but it's sure to brighten your day.

This book of cartoons about books pokes fun at readers and non-readers alike. Comics range from depicting book-stores where employees panic at trying to find a book among tote bags, CDs, and stationary, to book clubs where members gossip about the "promiscuity" of another member who is in at least five other book clubs. From comics that joke about authors like Poe and Hemingway, to those just starting out. It is a fun, quick read that delights the inner bookworm.

I think a copy of this book should be handed out along with every library card issued. This book is hilarious. I don't think my kids would understand the jokes (and there are a few stray body parts that would make it too chancy to have in the kids' section), but it should be in every adult side of the library.

Three and a half stars.

A book full of black and white one-shot cartoons related to literature, whether it be the content of certain books ("Moby Dick", Sherlock Holmes) or our attitude to books and their authors. There's a lot of similarity here, proving these aren't the world's best of their kind (and apparently many are new to print here), with much kvetching about the self-published status, but still the content isn't too bad. Sure, the hit rate might even be above 50/50, which is not bad at all as far as these things go. Worth consideration if you are still one of those rare kinds who buy quickly-read, quickly-disposed-of novelty books.