leslierholm's review against another edition

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5.0

There is an story story or 3 for every day of the year, and each one concerns an author, a book, a poem - and each one is massively interesting to a reader. For instance, the entry for July 21, 1940 concerns H.A. and Margret Rey escaping Nazi France to end up in New York with a pile of manuscripts and drawings about a mischievous monkey named Fifi - later changed to Curious George. The 21st was the actual day they sailed from Lisbon to Rio, but the entry briefly covered the back story and the conclusion to their journey. I read it rapidly because I found it so interesting, but now I keep it by my bed to read each night before sleep.

balletbookworm's review against another edition

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3.0

Eh, it was OK. Some entries were too cleverly-constructed (clauses within clauses) that didn't make apparent why a particular anecdote was chosen for that day. Not easy to read in long stretches.

But I did find out that PD James and I share a birthday.

lacewing's review

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informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.25

I've been sending people extracts from the daily entries all year. But I also enjoyed the monthly essays on books where the main action takes place then, and used them to find some reads "I'll get around to someday."

dogtrax's review against another edition

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5.0

A book to read for the whole year

booknerd7820's review against another edition

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2.0

Too many obscure authors and book references for me to really enjoy the factoids.

suvata's review against another edition

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3.0

Clearly, a great amount of research was put into this book. I read through most of January, looked up my own birthday in September, and decided to call it quits. I will eventually read most of this book but I plan on using it more as a reference book then something I would read cover to cover.

cami19's review against another edition

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informative relaxing medium-paced

4.0

yasviridov's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.0

jiayuanc's review against another edition

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funny informative relaxing medium-paced

4.0

dreamerfreak's review against another edition

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2.0

DNF at ~75%