Reviews

The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century by Josh Cook

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readinginmaine's review

3.0

I am neither an author nor a bookseller, so perhaps I’m not the right audience for this book.

IMHO, the back cover description didn’t match well with the overall content of the book: “if books are important to you…then how books are sold should be important to you too. With Amazon’s growing power….how we get our books is more important than ever.”

Instead of helping me understand the complexity of book selling, this was a set of very personal (and at times self-righteous) essays from one bookseller. I didn’t find that the essays synced together well to create a coherent book, nor do I feel like I learned anything I didn’t know about book selling.

lovelyandmorbid's review

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informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.0

I enjoyed getting to know Josh,! This scratches a specific itch, I always want to know the business of books and I like the relaxed essay structure. I sometimes struggled to follow a thought all the way through but ultimately enjoyed the tone of the writing, it felt like something I would write (if I had the skill).

chelsiaann's review

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challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

kjboldon's review

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2.5

This was a weird book for me. I put it down in the middle, but picked it up again. I'm a bookseller right now. It's a job, not a calling for me. I find the romanticization of it a little precious. This book was sometimes a pleasure, sometimes a slog. Overall, too long and long winded. I enjoyed and appreciated the sections on indie stores, surviving pandemic, American Dirt. I didn't enjoy those about hand selling books and reading books in translation. Having read the book, I don't vibe with his recommendations. I finished it, though, and was glad I did for the final section on masks and pandemic.

lizanya's review

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funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

alyciajstewart's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

1.5

This is not a book about books or bookselling. It is a political rant. There are tiny morsels sprinkled throughout the book that actually relate to the tagline "selling books and reading books in the 21st century" but the majority of the book is the author sharing his political thoughts. Finally at the end of the book the author comes back around to the supposed purpose of the book and actually talks about reading and various skills Readers need to activate. After slogging through the political jumble this was a welcome break. I would say about 15% of this book actually relates to bookselling. If you don't mind reading exceedingly long sentences droning on about politics you might be able to find tidbits of applicable information for bookselling, otherwise, steer clear!