Review: My Ideal Bookshelf by Thessaly La Force

3 stars for My Ideal Bookshelf by Thessaly La Force.

Books find readers. Yes, you heard me; I believe a book seek its reader. Books always unexpectedly find me instead of the other way around. And when it does, I will reshuffle my Reading List and go with the flow. What I like to say really is, I did not seek this book. Interestingly, this book comes to me at the right time, right after I have read My Bookstore. Any other time and I will likely have dismissed the book.

It is interesting peeking into other people's reading lives, especially people from all walks of life - actors, architects, artists, athletes, cartoonists, chefs, composers, curators, dancers, designers (for book cover, fashion, graphic, interior, jewelry, typeface), doctors, editors, filmmakers, historians, illustrators, journalists, librarians, musicians, photographers, poets, producers, violist, writers - to see what they have read or are reading or are rereading. It feels good to be among people who loves to read. I have an enjoyable time thumbing through the pages of this book, examining the bookshelves of every contributor in there, checking out the hidden gems in their collection, that is, books I never know existed, and it goes without saying, adding them to my ever-growing Reading List.

In some ways this book helps to accentuate the different reasons for reading. Different people see things differently and have different taste in books. They look for different things in books and they look at different things on books. It every much depends on people's upbringing and what they do for a living. The same book can mean different things to different people, or in different stages of life. What I glean from this book is, while most will advise "never judge a book by its cover", those who work in the artistic side of publishing, say an illustrator/artist will tell us to ignore that advice because to them, people judge books by their covers. Literally. Every day. Well, I think they are not wrong either.

My Ideal Bookshelf. The book title in itself is thought-provoking enough. It set me thinking. What does it mean to create my own ideal bookshelf? Hmm.. There is actually no such thing as one ideal bookshelf. Because a lot depends on where I am, physically and emotionally, when I decide to pick up a book and gives it a chance. It also depends on the different seasons of life. What I select today may be completely different from what I will assemble say one year later. What it means is, I may build my ideal bookshelf every year of my life and it will turn out to be completely different each time, though still as satisfying. Ultimately, it is not the building of an ideal bookshelf that matters, but rather, the ongoing search for the ideal book, the one more that I will love to read and hold dear for the rest of my life. That is the reason why my Reading List is growing longer by the day as I am constantly in search of and adding more good reads.

Nevertheless, I will still like to go ahead to put together my ideal bookshelf. It will display books that made me cry, books that I have read and reread, books that changed me, shaped my thinking and made me who I am today, books that I love most, and books that I think is the best I will ever read. These are books that are linked to the different moments of my life. They may be books I want on my ideal bookshelf for now, but who knows what the future has in store for me.

Reading is not simply a hobby or something done to pass time. Reading is a lifestyle, my lifestyle. Books are an essential part of my life and life story. There is nothing that parallels the physical book, nothing like its weight and feel, touch and smell, and the crackle of its spine. I am proud to say that I am the happy owner of physical books 1-6 below.

《My ideal bookshelf》

1. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
2. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
3. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
4. Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan
5. The Lord of the Ring trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
6. Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews
7. Across the Universe trilogy by Beth Revis
8. Red Letter Day by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
9. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
10. Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans
11. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
12. Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls
13. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
14. The Year of Less by Cait Flanders
15. What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey

So, the big questions is, if you are tasked to share your passion for reading with the world, to select a small shelf of books that represent you, books that have made you the person you are today, your favourite among the favourites, what books will you choose?

Review: My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop by Ronald Rice

4 stars for My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop by Ronald Rice.

This book is what I call Bookstore for the Literary Soul, the equivalent of Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. It is the embodiment of booklovers' paradise, a physical place where booklovers park themselves, not only to browse and buy books, but also to pass time, to lift their spirits and to just be.

It is a significant literary pleasure getting to know as many as eighty-four independent bookstores through authors' take on their favourites. Even though I have never set foot in any of the bookstores listed herein, I feel a great fondness and affinity with these bricks-and-mortar stores as if I have known them all my life. Bookstores are places of genuine wonder with a universe of knowledge on their shelves. Ask any booklover and she will tell you "there can never be too many books". For the same reason, there can never be too many small, locally owned bookstores. For a while, I read this hardcover book like a freight train, devouring bookstore after bookstore, soaking it all in. But as far as good things go, even bookstore hopping within the safety confines of my home does not escape the law of diminishing marginal utility. I have to admit that by the time I reach the forty-second bookstore, I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the stories inside every bookstore. Yes, each bookstore has its own history to tell, story to share, and every patron's experience is different, yet, it is all the same. Because all independent bookstores are owned or ran by book people. They know their store, they know their customers and they know books. Period.

Besides providing unique book-shopping experience to customers, independently owned bookstores also organized book events and readings, bring communities together, support small presses and give lesser-known or even unknown writers the opportunity to sign and read their books. This book gives an eye-opening look into the lives of authors. It has never occurred to me that even authors who are well known and well published now, were once unknown; having to launch a new career is no easy feat when most bookstores cannot be bothered with a rookie author's debut novel published by a small company.

This book also drives home the existential struggle faced by independent bricks-and-mortar bookstores around the world. The struggle is very real and is ever more dire, especially with the threat of big chain bookstores such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble and the inevitable rise in popularity of e-readers and e-books. With independent bookstores vanishing at an alarming rate, I wonder how many of these traditional bookstores will still be around in another three, five, ten or hundred years.

A bookstore is like a magical place, one where we may both lose and find ourselves. To have a bookstore - within walking distance from your home - which you like enough to call your own is truly a great blessing. I enjoy reading the essays and fond memories of authors on their favourite physical bookstores, but sadly, it also reminds me of the fact that there is no locally owned bookstore that I frequent enough and like enough to call my own - my personal bookstore. Sure, there are independent bookstores scattered around the island but I have yet to find the one. I am still searching, still hoping to discover My Bookstore.

My Bookstore is most certainly a book meant for readers and writers alike. If you like physical bookstores, to be surrounded by books (and I mean real books of hardcover and paperback), the feel of paper pages bound between covers, the smell of old books and the touch of language, then this is definitely the book to read.

Review: Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers by Bob Eckstein

4 stars for Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers by Bob Eckstein.

This is a lovely collection of watercolour paintings, descriptions and quotations on some of the world's most treasured bookstores.

The author who is also the illustrator brings readers on a virtual bookstore tour around the world. The tour package includes name of bookstore, city and country it is located, year of establishment to last known year of operation (to present when it is still in operation), a short write-up and any quote of interest collected from owners, employees or patrons. The tour runs from New York City to San Francisco, California to Birmingham, Alabama to Boston, Massachusetts to Chicago, Illinois to Cambridge, Massachusetts to Detroit, Michigan to Taos, New Mexico to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Seattle, Washington to South Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana to Brownsville, Nebraska to Charlottesville, Virginia to Palmer, Alaska in the United States to Goa and Chennai in India to Buenos Aires, Argentina to Nanjing, China to Paris, France to Martin, Slovakia to London, England to Albuquerque, Mexico to Reykjavik, Iceland to Frankfurt, Germany to Porto, Portugal to Bucharest, Romania to Vancouver Island, Canada to Aberfeldy, Scotland to Venice, Italy and more.

Much as I will love to visit all these charming bookstores located all over the world, I doubt I will be able to. But I am not without hope. The one bookstore that will be mighty interesting to visit one day is perhaps the last bookstore introduced which goes without saying, is a bookstore named The Last Bookstore. How fitting it is to place The Last Bookstore as the last bookstore in this book! Founded in 2005, this bookstore located in Los Angeles, California, is one of the largest independent bookstores in the world with over 250,000 new, used and rare books in its collection. What makes this bookstore so unique is that the space it is now occupying was originally a bank and its underground vaults are now reading rooms.

I love all bookstores, big or small, independents or chains. Once I walk into a bookstore, time stands still. For this reason, every bookstore listed in this book fascinates me. Though some of these independent bricks-and-mortar bookstores have since closed down for good, it is still a wondrous thing to have them illustrated here to be etched forever in our memories. As for those that have survived the hard times and are operating still, my greatest hope is that they can remain so until the end of time.