This list of the 25 best nonfiction books about books contains a spectrum of bookish topics. You’ll find reading memoirs, histories of the book, book recommendations, literary theory, rallying cries for libraries, and personal essays about books, reading, and literature. If you love books about books and reading, you’re in the right place.
The Best Nonfiction Books About Books
1001 Books for Every Mood by Dr. Hallie Ephron
Need more book recommendations? Looking to discover new books? Let Dr. Hallie Ephron be your guide with her epic 1001 Books for Every Mood. I personally have a copy of this one, and it’s a must-have on a list of books about books. I especially like how these recs are organized by “mood,” like “…for a Good Cry,” “…to Hit a Home Run,” and “…to Celebrate Friends.” Ephron has a comprehensive knowledge of books, which means you get a diverse slate of books, whether you want something trusted or are seeking something new and undiscovered.
How to read it: Purchase 1001 Books for Every Mood on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
1,0001 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich
At one point, all readers must face their mortality: there just isn’t enough time to read all the books you want to read. Staring down that fact, you might want to prioritize what you read. In that case, you want to get ahold of James Mustich’s 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List. This carefully curated, eclectic list of essential books to read in your lifetime guides you through what the most crucial books to experience. This is not your typical Dead White Men reading list you remember from English class; Mustich includes a diverse lineup of authors, like Malcom X, Barack Obama, and Zadie Smith.
How to read it: Purchase 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
This charming book about books is a modern classic of the genre. Originally published in 1970, 84, Charing Cross Road tells the story of the decades-long friendship between Helen Hanff, a New York City-based writer, and a London used bookstore owner. A cozy, feel-good read, this book is perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the rom-com You’ve Got Mail.
How to read it: Purchase 84, Charing Cross Road on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount
What could be better in nonfiction books about books than gorgeous illustration? In Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany, artist Jane Mount depicts a potpourri of books, authors, and bookish places in a gorgeous book that’s perfect for your coffee table or a gift for that special reader in your life. Mount covers everything from “Bookstore Cats” to “Beautiful Contemporary Covers” to “Love & Romance” and “Striking Libraries.” You’ll also want to check out the second book in this series, which focuses on diverse literature: Bibliophile: Diverse Spines.
How to read it: Purchase Bibliophile: An illustrated Miscellany on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston
Have you ever stopped in the midst of reading and thought about what a book actually is? When you think about it, the book might have been the most remarkable invention ever designed by humans. And still, a book is essentially a pretty simple object: two covers, bound paper, and lines of characters printed on them. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering about books as an object, Keith Houston’s The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time is a must-read. This book breaks down the book as an object, explaining how it has come to be in its modern form. With chapters on “The page,” binding, and papyrus scrolls and wax tablets, this trip through bookish history is packed full of interesting revelations and dinner-party tidbits.
How to read it: Purchase The Book on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Book Love by Debbie Tung
This cute collection of bookish comics by Debbie Tung will resonate with any reader who is head over heels in love with books. Witty and offbeat, Book Love is a great gift for the reader in your life or, if you’re looking for a quick read or a quick hit of bibliophile fun, pick up Book Love.
How to read it: Purchase Book Love on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You’ll Never Read by Stuart Kelly
The Book of Lost Books is a fascinating read for bookworms. This “Incomplete History of All the Great Books You’ll Never Read” highlights books that will never be read because they have been lost to us in some way. You’ll read about Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon, a possible sequel to Shakespeare’s Love’s Labors Lost, and 130 pages in Sylvia Plath’s second novel that have disappeared since her death. Entertaining and enlightening, The Book of Lost Book is a rollicking romp through book land.
How to read it: Purchase The Book of Lost Books on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education by Michael Dirda
Pulitzer Prize-winning literary essayist Michael Dirda tackles nothing short of a literary education in his book Bound to Please. In Bound to Please, Dirda focuses on highlighting the best classic books and amplifying lesser-known works of literature as well. From way way back in literary time and the eras of the Bible and Ovid to more modern authors like Djuna Barnes, Marcel Proust, and Jorge Luis Borges, this book is more than just a list of literature’s greatest hits. That’s because Bound to Please includes literary criticism, too. If you’ve ever wanted to take an expert’s seminar in English lit, you’ll find all that and more in Bound to Please.
How to read it: Purchase Bound to Please on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Quirky and charming, Shaun Blythell confesses all you’ve ever wanted to know about the behind-the-scenes of a bookstore. Blythell owns The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland’s the largest used bookstore, and in The Diary of a Bookseller you get the inside scoop. Funny and upbeat, with Blythell’s quirky voice, this book is a cozy delight for book nerds.
How to read it: Purchase The Diary of a Bookseller on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
Anne Fadiman’s classic bookish memoir Ex Libris single-handedly lifted me out of a deep reading slump. Why did this book crack the case? Because it is a charming collection of personal essays about living life as a book lover. If you’re struggling to connect to reading, going through a reading slump, or challenged by books at the moment, pick up this quirky essay book that is infused with a love for reading. I guarantee it will help you reconnect with your identity as a super reader and rekindle your passion to read.
How to read it: Purchase Ex Libris on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel’s modern classic A History of Reading is hands down one of the best books about reading. As its title hints, Manguel’s book chronicles the 6,000-year history of reading. Manguel explores who readers are, asking the provocative and seemingly simple question: “Who is ‘the reader’?” Manguel examines how we learned to read, how we read pictures, and the powers of the reader, among numerous other topics. This celebration of reading is certainly a key in the genre of nonfiction books about books.
How to read it: Purchase A History of Reading on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel
As the creator of the popular book blog Modern Mrs. Darcy, Anne Bogel brings a book blogger’s perspective in her memoir I’d Rather Be Reading. This essay collection will replenish anyone’s drive to read. Bogel shares her life as a reader in creative essays that bookworms will see themselves in. I’d Rather Be Reading is a love letter to literature that’s approachable, fun, and easy to identify with.
How to read it: Purchase I’d Rather Be Reading on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan
This lively book packed with interesting bookish anecdotes is all about the humble index. Yep, that’s right: this book focuses on those final pages in a book where we see a list of topics and page numbers. Sound boring? I promise you it’s not. One of the best nonfiction books about books, Index, A History of the lives up to its witty name as it looks at the origins of indexes and follows them right up to the present in our eBook world.
How to read it: Purchase Index, A History of the on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante
My Brilliant Friend author Elena Ferrante pens four essays on her literary life in this collection. Ferrante writes about her perspective as a writer and as a reader in her book In the Margins. Ferrante takes a deep dive into her personal author and reader origins story, giving a special nod to female writers across decades and places and cultures. If you’ve read My Brilliant Friend and can’t get enough of Ferrante, or if you’re just looking for a brief read that will replenish your reading energy, pick up In the Margins.
How to read it: Purchase In the Margins on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
An essential that belongs on any list of the best books about books and libraries, Susan Orlean’s The Library Book is an engrossing true crime read about the power of the modern library. In this book, Orlean writes about an arson that took place at the Los Angeles Public Library on April 29, 1986. Still, even thirty years later, the police don’t know who set the fire that ultimately destroyed 400,000 books and damaged even more. New Yorker author Orlean the tries to track down the truth about what happened that day while also illuminating the key role librarians and public libraries have in serving the public today.
How to read it: Purchase The Library Book on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
Historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen take readers on a trip through time to tell the story of the library. In The Library: A Fragile History, the authors discuss the history of libraries and, in particular, special collections, arguing that libraries are at once fragile and susceptible to destruction while also being resilient. A rousing cry for the power of the library, this book is required reading for anyone who wants nonfiction books about books and libraries.
How to read it: Purchase The Library: A Fragile History on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
My Ideal Bookshelf edited by Thessaly La Force
My Ideal Bookshelf is edited by Thessaly La Force and illustrated by Jane Mount, our second Mount book in this list of the best nonfiction books about books. This book depicts the ideal bookshelves of notable people, like Dave Eggers, Jennifer Egan, Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson, and James Franco. The concept is simple: ask famous writers, artists, and intellectuals to each curate a shelf containing the books that have significantly shaped and influenced them. What you get is am interesting peek inside the lives of interesting people through the power of books. A great coffee table book or gift for the bookworm you love, My Ideal Bookshelf is an endlessly surprising and always inspiring ode to literature to impact, guide, and save lives.
How to read it: Purchase My Ideal Bookshelf on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin
This whimsical book recommends books as solutions to cure what you suffer from. You’ve probably heard the term “bibliotherapy” to refer to the healing power of books, and that’s exactly what you get in this comprehensive guide that offers more than 750 book recommendations. If you’ve ever endured “Abandonment,” “Angst, Existential,” or “Anger,” you’ll find a thoughtful book to help you on your healing way.
How to read it: Purchase The Novel Cure on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library by Amanda Oliver
Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library has earned its spot on this list of books about books and libraries. Unflinching and gritty, Overdue explores the public library as an essential service for our modern times. Written by Amanda Oliver, a former public librarian who’s spent years working in libraries in the Washington, D.C. area, this book pulls no punches about the state of the public library as a crucial hub for more than just books, but social services as well.
How to read it: Purchase Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafsi
From Azar Nafsi, the author behind the beloved bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, this book is a rousing call to arms about the subversive power of literature during times of personal, national, and global crisis. Rather than shy away from contemporary politics, Azar Nafsi leans into the radical power of literature to dispense information, rally those who feel defeated, and connect people who feel alienated and alone. I firmly believe that reading is a radical act, and Nafsi agrees, as she argues in Read Dangerously, one of the most important books about the importance of reading.
How to read it: Purchase Read Dangerously on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Ten Years In the Tub by Nick Hornby
One of the most influential literary critics in my life, Nick Hornby penned a monthly column called “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” in the now-defunct magazine The Believer. Through reading Hornby’s essay each month, I was exposed to a writer whose writing about books was unpretentious, funny, and deeply personal. I count those columns as formative in my own writing, and, in particular, this book blog project I’ve been doing for almost eight years now. If you missed the essays the first round, pick up Ten Years in the Tub, which collects ten years’ worth of Believer columns. Hornby has a deep affection for books, which makes Ten Years in the Tub among the best books about books and reading.
How to read it: Purchase Ten Years in the Tub on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch
You’ll find Tolstoy and the Purple Chair on any good list of books about books. Read it, and you’ll see why. When her sister died, Nina Sankovitch dealt with her grief by finding solace in books. Sankovitch decided to try a wild experiment: reading a book a day for a year. Tolstoy and the Purple chair is her account of the year she read and finished a book each day. This astonishing memoir counts as one of the best books about books and offers a look inside what extreme reading could be like. All of us bookworms wonder how many books we should read each year (a topic we’ve discussed on this blog before), and I get the feeling we’d all love to finish a book a day. Through Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, we get a visceral glimpse of what that experiment might look like.
How to read it: Purchase Tolstoy and the Purple Chair on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund
Have you ever stopped yourself and wondered at the marvel that is reading? That we use our eyes to skim over combinations of pictorial marks called an alphabet, and somehow, in our minds, we convert that experience into an image in our mind? It’s an astonishingly basic yet totally complex process. And in What We See When We Read, Peter Mendelsund breaks down the process of what we see in our minds while we read. This fascinating deep-dive into the science of how we read is definitely on any roundup of the best books about reading.
How to read it: Purchase What We See When We Read on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning
Did you know that books helped win World War II? In Molly Guptill Manning’s When Books Went to War we get the fascinating story of how librarians organized mass book donations to send books to American troops on the battlegrounds in the Second World War. While the Nazis burned millions of books, the American soldiers were fueled with cheap, small paperbacks called Armed Services Editions that were mass produced with the partnership between publishers and the War Department in 1943. When Books Went to War deserves to be named one of the best books about the importance of reading because it reveals how reading can comfort, inspire, and entertain when we need to most.
How to read it: Purchase When Books Went to War on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy
I recently wrote an essay for Book Riot about “The Wonder of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult” that got a little traction on social media, and I think I know why: reading kid lit as an adult is an experience filled with wonder and joy. I get the feeling Bruce Handy agrees with me, as he writes in his revealing, uplifting, and curiously interesting book Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult. It’s fitting to close this list of the best nonfiction books about books with Handy’s Wild Things. After all, so many of us become readers when we’re kids. It’s the power of connecting with children’s literature that helps shape many of us into the readers we are today as adults. If you find yourself in a reading slump, check out this book to help rekindle your love for books.
How to read it: Purchase Wild Things on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Two more great nonfiction books about books…
I actually have two more bonus books to add to this list: my literary quiz book The Great Literature Trivia Quiz Book and my collection of book quotes, A Reader’s Library of Book Quotes…
The Great Literature Trivia Quiz Book by Sarah S. Davis (Me!)
Born out of my blog post with a free children’s literature quiz, this book tests if you are a true bookworm. Put your knowledge to the test with The Great Literature Trivia Quiz Book! Only true book nerds can answer the 500 unique literature trivia quiz questions in this collection. Across 20 themed chapters with 25 questions each, see how well you remember English class. A great gift for English teachers, librarians, and writers, The Great Literature Trivia Book is also perfect for pub trivia night.
What’s unique about The Great Literature Trivia Book:
1. One of the only trivia quiz books to-date that is devoted entirely to literature and books.
2. Each question is formatted as multiple choice: you don’t have to make up sample answers because they’re already there.
3. A wide range of book knowledge covered, from children’s literature to poetry to early English literature and YA.
4. Browse chapters by genre, or go for the five sets of General Knowledge for a grab-bag of book questions.
5. The book is cleanly formatted, so you can jump right to the answers through a link at the end of each chapter.
6. Authority: researched and created by the #1 bestselling librarian author of A Reader’s Library of Book Quotes.
Not interested in the book? You can still get my free literature quiz with 50 questions and my classic children’s literature quiz here on this blog for free.
How to read it: Purchase The Great Literature Trivia Quiz Book on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
And be sure to check out my other book about books, A Reader’s Library of Book Quotes…
A Reader’s Library of Book Quotes by Sarah S. Davis (Me!)
Features:
A sampling of wit and wisdom from the ages
400+ quotes from literary figures, writers, and champions of reading. Including: Roald Dahl, Virginia Woolf, Neil Gaiman, Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, and others.
A clean and organized format
Quotes organized and arranged by topic in nine chapters with introductions. For example, chapters cover themes like: Bookstores and Libraries, Humor, Storytelling and Writing, Knowledge, Ideas and Freedom of Expression, Companionship, and more.
And authority:
Selected and compiled by a librarian and book marketing strategist whose writing about books has appeared on Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, Electric Literature, and many others.
PLUS: This book of bookish quotes also contains bonus material for bookworms:
BONUS: 20 Great Book Websites – Find your next favorite read with this list of the best book websites, blogs, and reviews online.
BONUS: A Month of Journaling Questions for Readers – Start a book journal with these 31 prompts.
BONUS: 10 Great Books about Libraries – Immerse yourself in library life with these books about libraries.
BONUS: Overcome Your Reading Slump – Trapped in a reading slump? Learn how to create a “reading pivot” and get back to books.
Not interested in the book? Get 90 book quotes for free in this blog post: “An Essential List of the 90 Best Quotes About Books.”
