a lifestyle blog for book lovers

Happy Friday, readers! After getting FIVE INCHES of snow this week (that’s a lot around here) I’m looking forward to a weekend that (hopefully) feels a lot more like spring…

My favorite finds from around the web:

Book towns are made for book lovers. “It can’t be too big—not a city, but a genuine town, usually in a rural setting. It has to have bookshops—not one or two, but a real concentration, where a bibliophile might spend hours, even days, browsing.”

Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs Darcy: FACES of Louisville. So this was fun. Style Blueprint came to my house (and my library!) recently to chat and take some pictures.

Gone Girl’s gone, hello Eleanor Oliphant: why we’re all reading ‘up lit.’ “It’s perhaps unsurprising that in our increasingly busy and fragmented lives we are attracted to novels in which strangers demonstrate compassion.”

• Disney is donating up to a million books and you can help.

• Want a chance to fill up your bookshelves? (Of course!) Penguin Random House is giving away a year of books! (Penguin Random House is a big 5 publisher of some of our favorite titles and an affiliate partner.)

Coming Monday:

We are right in the middle of Book Flight Bonanza, the perfect alternative — or companion — to any March basketball activities, with 8 terrific novels paired with 8 illuminating nonfiction picks.

On Monday we’re sharing our next region: 16 titles that are perfect for book clubs. If you want to make sure you don’t miss that list, subscribe below. Subscribers also get a printable bracket they can highlight, use in their book or bullet journal, or take to the library or bookstore.

Favorite instagram:

This was so hard to choose this week! I’m going with this happy reading moment, but it’s a tough call: I had to choose between beautiful snow, finding Reading People on the bestseller table at Barnes and Noble, and the opening of a new Louisville bookstore. Follow me on instagram @annebogel.

And I can’t help myself: this week on the What Should I Read Next account I asked you all to recommend books for a reader headed to Paris, and you rose to the challenge. Check out all the fantastic comments here, and click here to follow What Should I Read Next on instagram.

On the blog:

One year ago: 11 books that are better in the spring. “I had in mind themes that coincide with earth’s bursting to life after a long, cold winter: books about renewal and rebirth, about second chances and making things new.”

Two years ago: 10 favorite bookstagrammers to follow. “I love instagram, and one of my favorite things about it is the many bookish accounts you won’t be surprised to hear I’ve found.”

Three years ago: Mind maps: what they are and how to use them. “Mind maps are my go-to tool for conjuring order out of my jumbled thoughts.”

Four years ago: For the Janeite who ran out of Austen novels. “And like Austen, she illuminates the subtleties of her character’s virtues and flaws so that you know them inside and out. What’s not to love?”

Five years ago: A dissenting opinion on the IKEA Ektorp sofa. “I like my sofa. I love the look of the white. And I know I can buy new slipcovers or dye the ones I have or cover the couch with blankets to protect it. But what I really want is to not be high-maintenance about my furniture.”

Six years ago: My favorite natural skincare trick. I still do this all the time. “The scrub gives my nails a beautiful, natural shine, and it’s a lot easier to maintain good-looking natural nails than to keep polished ones looking pretty.”

Have a great weekend!

5 comments

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  1. Susan Jones says:

    Another book town is Archer City TX. Larry McMurtry bought the empty storefronts around the small town where The Last Picture Show was filmed, and now those stores are filled ceiling to floor with books. Start your browing and shopping at any store, pull out what you want to purchase, load them in the car, go to the next store—all around the square.. when you are done, there is a cashier in only one of the stores so you go there to pay—honor system—and they check you out. Thete’s Really nothing else in town retail wise. Larry M lives on a ranch outside the town, but chances are you won’t catch a glimpse of him.

  2. Vanessa says:

    I love that you are one of the faces of Louisville! So great! And your answers were fabulous, especially three words that describe you. Thanks for sharing!

  3. Rissie Lundberg says:

    Hooray for uplifting books!! I’m so glad to see Eleanor Oliphant and similar stories get some attention and love. They are just what I’m looking for. ❤️

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