2.5 stars, rounding down to 2. Nothing seriously wrong with the book. It had been alternating between the present day, when the main character is 71, and his younger days, which was alright with me. However, at one point one of the flashbacks just kept going on and on and on and on.

I could tell you that the events of that overlong flashback are pivotal to the MC's story, but I also have to say that I believe that the book could have been structured differently. (I was about to say "better," but that's just my opinion, and maybe not even correct.) The result was that THIS "librarianist" became extremely impatient with the book, which had only been just ok-to-decent, with some funny bits. Ultimately, I jumped to the end so I can get to my next read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to the good folks at NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

Not for me. I didn't connect with any of the characters and got bored waiting for something to happen (spoiler alert: nothing happens).

I love books about books and just by the title and cover alone, it’s getting added to my tbr. Patrick DeWitt is also the author of French Exit.

A lovely, quiet little book centered around introverted, retired librarian Bob Comet. I enjoyed the flashback to his early career and marriage the most, and the section that went further back to his childhood was a little too long for me, but overall it was an enjoyable read about what makes up a life.

The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt is one of the more low key books I have read. It’s the life of Bob Comet, largely through Bob’s thoughts and words and covers the major events of his life. And that is both the strength and weakness of this book, for Bob is so intensely self-effacing, and shy ( or is that a behavioral quirk—I just can’t decide).

The prose is often very clever and well done but…and there is this but always arising. It’s the story of a sad man who appears to have loved his career at the local library, been very unlucky in love, and had one adventure. There is a flashback late in the book to a childhood episode where he ran away from home. I particularly liked this segment. Perhaps it revealed a potential other “Bob” that might have been. Perhaps it offsets later regrets.

I come away from this novel wishing for more but not sorry I read it. I will check deWitt’s writing again. My rating likely 3.5 rounded down to 3.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Bob Comet is a retired librarian who is struggling a bit to figure out what to do in his retirement. He finds a woman who is lost and returns her to a senior home where he is invited to volunteer. Assuming everyone is as into books as he is, he decides to read to them and is dismayed to find they are not interested. Over time he befriends several of the quirky characters.

This book was a decent read but ultimately I felt like it could've been more. The premise is so interesting but the narrative almost loses itself in all of the characters. That being said, I did enjoy Bob. I also really appreciated the writing style. It was clever and fun and kept me engaged even through some of the slower parts of the book. All in all, not my favorite due to structure and some dragged out parts, but I did enjoy it for what it was.

After retiring from a job he loved, librarian Bob Comet is content spending his days reading in his small cottage. It’s a solitary life and Bob knows he could and should be doing more. When he encounters an elderly woman who is seems lost and somewhat confused, Bob escorts her back to a senior center where she lives. Here is where Bob decides to volunteer and as he meets the seniors at the center, the story of his life is revealed through flashbacks and narratives.

The Librarianist is not the book I expected it to be. I enjoyed the first part of the book as the residents of the senior center are introduced and Bob navigates his way through his volunteer commitment. There are also insights into Bob’s life-long love of books. However, this is a small part of this character-driven story and most of it centers around Bob’s earlier life – running away from home at the age of eleven, the influence of an older librarian who inspired Bob to become a librarian himself, and the close relationship he had with his best friend and a woman named Connie, whom he later married.

Much of this part of the story was quite slow for me. The characters are well-developed and the writing is quite good. But, I don’t think I enjoyed this book very much because I had expected something quite different. I would have to say I liked the beginning and the end of this book, but the middle wasn’t my favorite. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

Fans of deWitt will appreciate this one. His descriptions of people and places are witty and charming. Parts of the book felt slow to me, especially the time period where he ran away. It felt like a different story with a different Bob.

It's very rare that I rate a book two stars, let alone one. This one, however, had absolutely no purpose, it meandered without a purpose and spent more time in the past, looking at dull moments of Bob's life that culminated in absolutely nothing, than focusing on the present day. I wanted so much to love this book since it sounded in the vein of "A Man Called Ove", but by the halfway mark, I dreaded listening to the audiobook where the narrator had long pauses in his sentences. By the time I was ready to DNF it, I was already 40% of the way through, and decided to stick it out until the bitter end.

I disliked all of the characters. Bob was such a boring protagonist and didn't have any backbone. Connie was a terrible human being for cheating on Bob and pretty flat. Allen was an awful best friend to Bob, but at least he was the most colorful character. There is a ton of talk about sex and relationships which is agonizing to get through and isn't revelatory at all.

I was hoping for more library-related or at least literary references, but that part was sorely lacking, which was a letdown since that was Bob's whole career and the title of this book. I found the first part of the book, where Bob is looking for something to fill is time with, more interesting than the majority of the book which is told in flashback. The author tried to add a little levity and positive message at the end, but at that point, I was just rushing to get through it.

Dull, Pointless, and Melancholic, this was painful to get through.

Thanks to Libro.fm for an ALC of this book and to the publisher for a physical ARC.

2.5* I think the ending of this book was really well done and definitely was a nice feel good but the journey there was just too slow. There were lots of little gems of quotes and moments but not enough consistency through out the book to keep my attention. I like the dual timeline method of story telling attempted but did feel like the execution fell flat because of the pacing. I would try this author again because I felt there was alot of potential and the general plot points were interesting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for a copy of this novel. This novel is available now!

(3.5 stars rounded up)
This one is a hard book to rate for me. I really enjoyed it, I never felt like I was bored or didn't want to read anymore, but I didn't love it.

The story is divided into 3 different time periods and I really enjoyed reading each section, but felt disappointed when they ended. My favorite by far was the second section when Bob is a young librarianist and meets his wife and best friend. I could have read a whole book about Bob, Connie, and Ethan. The section where Bob runs away at 11 years old just felt out of place, but maybe I'm missing something. I loved June and Ida and the other characters at Hotel Elba, but I just didn't understand why it was part of the book.

Overall I did enjoy it, it's a character driven story with tons of interesting, lovable characters. This may be one of those books that sticks with me for a while and makes me reevaluate my rating in a few weeks.

Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for the advanced copy of The Librarianist.

A gentle read about retiree Bob; his past life as a librarian and the cast of characters he now encounters as a volunteer at a retirement home.

The Librarianist focuses on retired librarian Bob Comet and his story. Bob is somewhat eccentric, a bit of a loner, and spends a lot of his time reflecting on his career and his family. It's a quiet, character driven novel and it really spoke to the introverted book lover in me. Patrick deWitt has become one of my favorite authors - a must read for fans of his and for lovers of books revolving around books.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for this ARC.

A likable and quirky cast of characters in a sweet, sometimes melancholy, reflection on growing old and looking back.

A little bit quirky, a little bit sad, a little bit funny, and a whole lot of captivating, is how I would describe the life story of Bob Comet. This book provided a pleasant escape for me as Bob took me along for the ride of his life. I couldn’t help but feel for him, and the various circumstances that he faced as he grew older, and I think if he were real, we would be friends. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for something that is light and fun. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. As a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed. Behind Bob Comet’s façade is the story of an unhappy child’s runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian’s vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob’s experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.

I like books about librarians, but I thought the title was deceiving in that librarians was only a very small part of the book. I also thought the middle section of his running away could have been shortened. What bothered me the most, though, was the abrupt ending. I was just reading along and the book just stopped. I did think that the characters were well written and mostly believable, but if someone wants a book about librarians, I would not recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the book and introducing me to the author that I had not read before. I have no comparison to his other books which have gotten good reviews.

Some magic buried in a slow-paced book with too many unnecessary characters

Bob, a retired librarian, finds a missing senior citizen at a convenience store. When he returns the missing woman, Bob begins to volunteer at the senior center. Then, we flashback to two major time periods in Bob’s life and flash back to the conclusion.

Sadly, this book is a bit painful for me. The book is really slow paced, and, if I was editor, I would have trimmed it significantly.

When Bob is first introduced to the senior center, that section is too long, and there are too many characters.

The section about Bob’s wife and best friend I loved it. I would not have changed anything. I loved the complex backstory of each of the characters. Even though one of the characters hurt Bob, I understood why it happened that way, and I thought that it was such a moving, cool moment.

However, some of that was buried in the next section. Bob runs away and meets a bunch of random characters that I didn’t connect with. This section seemed to drag on and on.

Then, we arrive at the ending, and I loved the way that the author concluded the story. It felt really realistic. However, the ending (as much of the book) was too long. The last few pages weren’t memorable.

Also, this is my own personal preference, but there just weren’t enough literary references. The book is entitled The Librarianist. My assumption is that the target audience is bibliophiles, but it didn’t have enough to make me happy.

Overall, I am actually a bit sad about this book because I felt that it has a bit of magic in it. It really did make me stop and think. However, it was just too slow paced and had too many unnecessary characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review. I have seen so much hype about this book I was really looking forward to it - and while I did thoroughly enjoy it, it is not my normal genre and I have never read DeWitt before so my review may be different. First, this will not be my last read from this wonderful author. The characters and the off beat humor throughout this book made for a refreshing read. I especially enjoyed Bob and his time at the Senior Center, but his time as a librarian almost seems disheartening and sad. But really what was most important is that his life was impactful and NOT solitary. My sister is a librarian so maybe my view is a little skewed???? Oh - and I agree with other reviewers- the back story is a little slow - but I could see myself rereading this with my sister and discussing it.

The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt follows the life of Bob Comet, who is a retired librarian. I had high hopes for this book. I was underwhelmed, not unlike the underwhelming protagonist. The best characters in the book appear near the end of the book when there is a reflection of the past. Bob ran away from home in his youth and had an adventure with two thespians. This part of the book was beautifully written with lots of humor.

I want to thank NetGalley for an early copy of the book.