For this bibliophile, one of the most entertaining non-fiction books that I've read! I enjoyed the variety of trivia categories, the style of writing, learning new things about familiar names, and adding new names to my personal want- to- read list. One slight shortcoming: mostly geared towards the British reader, sometimes affecting the content of the trivia. An example is in the section "By Royal Appointment," which discusses Poets Laureate; Italian examples predate the given British examples by centuries. But overall, a fun book to read.

As an avid reader and librarian, I enjoy hearing more about the authors and novels I have read, and ones I haven't. Packed with interesting tidbits, I think any reader will love all the interesting information in this book.

A book about books for anyone who loves books; this covers everything from book awards, writer feuds, who went by which pseudonym as well as so much more. It would make a perfect gift for any bookworm or someone interested in publishing or literary history. Personally, I found out a bit more about some of my favourite authors and came away with lots of recommendations from the lists at the end of each chapter, 4 stars.

For the Love of Books is great for book geeks who love literary trivia. This is a interesting collection of facts on books and authors.

I, personally, enjoyed this book, but I will not adopt it for future classes. While the information was very interesting to me as an English instructor, I don't think most of it would be of use to most students. In particular, I was very disappointed to see that the section on banned books didn't have more contemporary examples since book banning is still so prevalent. That was really the information that made me request the book, so I'm sad that it wasn't what I was looking for.

I think that this book is well researched. Along with the tales of the author, it also give us book recommendations.

I am not usually reading nonfiction book, but this is one of the book that I enjoy. Especially the It's A Fact segment. Gives us the trivia of literary world!

Thank you netgalley for providing the arc.

People who love books and reading and authors will love this book. It’s like a compilation of People magazine stories, but focusing solely on authors. There is information galore on famous feuds, who drank what and when, how and where certain authors liked to write, muses and obsessions, and just plain gossip. However, buried under the 21st century short attention span sections is some real, solid information about authors, writing, and reading. This would be an interesting companion text in a World Literature course - teach the serious stuff but temper it with the messy, human side of the authors. Recommended for people who enjoy trivia and unusual takes on traditional literature and authors.

I loved For the Love of Books.

It is a wonderful little compendium of facts and stories about some of our best loved authors. The layout is fun and you can dip in and out of it at your leisure…if you can be strong willed enough to pause in between reading. Personally, I found that I couldn’t. I wanted to know more information and read more about the books and the authors.

For the Love of Books is the perfect present for the book lover in your life!

For the Love of Books – Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary characters, and more by Graham Tarrant is available now.

For more information regarding Skyhorse Publishing (@skyhorsepub) please visit www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

I am a big booklover, but this book just didn't work for me. It just not the book to read in one go, but if you take time between reading... you just forget what you read before, as is what happened with me when I picked up this book after some time of trying part of it. :( It definitely has to do with the writing style, it just doesn't grab me. Too dry and stiff for me.

An entertaining volume full of trivia about books, authors, and reading. Something to pick up and read in short bursts. Not earth shattering, but fun for readers.

I thought this was full of fun, informative details and was a really good read. I can’t say I sat and read it in one go but I read it over a week or so alongside other books.
As a book fan I found it really quirky and I think it’s so diverse it will appeal to many bookworms out there.

I’ve even discovered more books I want to read!

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!

I enjoyed reading this book but I find it hard to categorize. It is both a history book and a melange of tidbits about authors’ lives, synopses of famous books and facts about the history of books and genres. I found it a bit confusing to know where I was in the book - the organization wasn’t always clear to me. I read an advance readers’ copy and suspect this book may ultimately be accompanied by photos, illustrations and formatting that will help readers orient themselves.

I think students would find this book engaging and it may encourage them to explore new authors and titles. I would certainly recommend it for high school students.

This book gets a solid five stars from me! Being a librarian as well as book lover and avid reader I found all of the random and miscellaneous facts about the literary world super appealing! The fun facts and other quirky stories were well written and entertaining. I rather enjoyed this book and got learn some new facts: did you know Anne Perry helped commit a murder? As well as chuckle at ones I already knew.
Thank you to NetGalley

As a book lover I loved this book straight from the introduction!! I loved all the history and fun tidbits. Definitely recommending to all my reader friends.

This was fine. It had some good stories and some interesting facts, but it definitely had serious bias towards Western lit, and I wish there had been a bit more discussion of the factors that have made the writing and publishing world so white and male.

This is a fun book and would be a perfect gift for any hard core bookworm. The facts and connections brought together about the most infamous books and authors are sure to entertain any literature major or fiction fan. I will be buying at least a few of copies to give away as gifts this year!

For the Love of Books is a delightful collection of anecdotes, some of which I knew, others of which were new to me. Overall, this is a volume that should delight any booklover looking for some light-hearted reading about their passion. My only gripe was when the author let personal opinion get in the way. For example, he lists names of Nobel Prize-winning authors who he claims no one has heard of, yet one of them is in my Top Ten Authors list, so it's a sweeping statement to say they are completely unknown and, as he seems to suggest from that, unworthy. Likewise, he expresses disdain for self-published authors, suggesting no self-published works are properly edited. This, too, is erroneous. I am a qualified freelance editor and work predominantly with self-publishing authors. I am friends with many other self-publishers, none of whom would release an unedited work. Some people out there may, it's true, but there are also many excellent self-published works. Comments like that rankled me and may upset others too. However, setting aside those occasional personal interjections from the author, there's a lot here that will appeal to the avid reader, and the book would make an excellent gift for any bookworm.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Skyhorse Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

I very rarely read nonfiction, despite having quite an impressive collection of various nonfiction books. When I saw this on Net Galley I thought it looked so interesting that I couldn't resist requesting it and I'm so glad I did! This is an absolute must-read for anyone with an interest in books, authors or literature-based history. It is full of fascinating facts about such a wide range of authors, mostly focusing on the more literary ones but occasionally dropping in facts about contemporary writers.

I loved how this book was laid out and it made it immensely readable for me. Each chapter has a theme (for example, authors who went to prison or famous crime fiction) and then is divided further into sections about specific authors or events. There are also additional information boxes which, while a little randomly placed in topic, were formatted perfectly in ebook format. None of them divided up any of the smaller sections which was fantastic because I hate it when I have to flick back and forth.

The breadth of topics was good, although I must admit a lot of the references to american authors were lost on me. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing since I loved learning about something entirely new, but I did find it interesting how absolutely none of them were covered by my UK-based education. I'm sure someone with a higher degree in literature would find it even more interesting having heard of more of the authors, but it definitely didn't deter from my reading experience. It also covers authors from many different countries which is really cool. I think both people with an expert knowledge of literature and people with a casual interest in books will find the information in this book fascinating. While I can't say for definite how common this knowledge is within the field, there was enough variation and detail that I can't imagine anyone knowing everything already.

Overall, this is a fantastic trivia book for people who love books. It's well-written, well-organised and full of both indepth anecdotes and fun little snippets you can randomly share. I am so glad I read it and I will definitely be suggesting it to my bookish friends.

Overall Rating: 5/5

The book is what it sets out to be-- a book full of facts about books, publishing, and writers. Some of the facts were interesting, but most were things I was aware of just by being a bookish person. I think that's where this book ultimately didn't work as well as it ought to have for me-- it's a book for bookish people full of information that bookish people are likely to already know.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book will be available to purchase on June 18th, 2019.

The word “incredible” does not do this book justice: I love, love, love it! Containing a wealth of information, this book is for anyone who loves to read. It’s both entertaining and incredibly informative at the same time. The history of books is just as fascinating as the books themselves. And some authors’ lives are even more sensational than many works of fiction!

Containing everything from the history of different genres to the genesis of popular terms; author feuds (there are a few authors who seem to only be happy if they’re mad at someone) to bizarre deaths; this book has it all. I learned so much that I almost wish I was a social person so that I could quote some of my new knowledge at parties.

I will most definitely be reading it again. This is a book that I want to own in hardback. Not only is it absolutely fascinating, but it will make an excellent addition to my homeschool. The information in the chapters is easily accessible and very well organized.

This book sucked me in and reminded me why I love to read in the first place. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Read it.