A Reader's Book of Days
True Tales from the Lives and Works of Writers for Every Day of the Year
Ratings1
Average rating3
A witty and addictively readable day-by-day literary companion. At once a love letter to literature and a charming guide to the books most worth reading, A Reader's Book of Days features bite-size accounts of events in the lives of great authors for every day of the year. Here is Marcel Proust starting In Search of Lost Time and Virginia Woolf scribbling in the margin of her own writing, "Is it nonsense, or is it brilliance?" Fictional events that take place within beloved books are also included: the birth of Harry Potter’s enemy Draco Malfoy, the blood-soaked prom in Stephen King’s Carrie. A Reader's Book of Days is filled with memorable and surprising tales from the lives and works of Martin Amis, Jane Austen, James Baldwin, Roberto Bolano, the Brontë sisters, Junot Díaz, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Joan Didion, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Keats, Hilary Mantel, Haruki Murakami, Flannery O’Connor, Orhan Pamuk, George Plimpton, Marilynne Robinson, W. G. Sebald, Dr. Seuss, Zadie Smith, Susan Sontag, Hunter S. Thompson, Leo Tolstoy, David Foster Wallace, and many more. The book also notes the days on which famous authors were born and died; it includes lists of recommended reading for every month of the year as well as snippets from book reviews as they appeared across literary history; and throughout there are wry illustrations by acclaimed artist Joanna Neborsky. Brimming with nearly 2,000 stories, A Reader's Book of Days will have readers of every stripe reaching for their favorite books and discovering new ones.
Tags
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Fun facts, silly quotes
some books I've never heard of
I'm too impatient.
Books that sounded interesting: 24 09 Jan: [b:Party Going|33283404|Party Going|Henry Green|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481089566l/33283404._SY75_.jpg|755756] 19 Jan: [b:So Long, See You Tomorrow|17429256|So Long, See You Tomorrow|William Maxwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1444889258l/17429256._SY75_.jpg|1267189] 04 Feb: [b:The Financier (Trilogy of Desire, #1)|5742754|The Financier (Trilogy of Desire, #1)|Theodore Dreiser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348363571l/5742754._SY75_.jpg|151348] 27 Mar: [b:The Devil & Sherlock Holmes|42393564|The Devil & Sherlock Holmes Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession|David Grann|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1539968484l/42393564._SY75_.jpg|7415616] 01 Apr: [b:The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade|771490|The Confidence-Man His Masquerade|Herman Melville|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1485212641l/771490._SY75_.jpg|13340108] 01 Apr: [b:Desert Solitaire|53017143|Desert Solitaire|Edward Abbey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568396483l/53017143._SX50_SY75_.jpg|234706] 16 Apr: [b:The Street of Crocodiles|244261|The Street of Crocodiles|Bruno Schulz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611780240l/244261._SY75_.jpg|902938] 14 May: [b:A Visit from the Goon Squad|8519525|A Visit from the Goon Squad|Jennifer Egan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327935565l/8519525._SX50_.jpg|8975330] Jun: [b:Cassandra at the Wedding|13531591|Cassandra at the Wedding|Dorothy Baker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386588442l/13531591._SY75_.jpg|887187] Jun: [b:Sleepless Nights|11426188|Sleepless Nights|Elizabeth Hardwick|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400862461l/11426188._SY75_.jpg|1045351] 20 Jun: [b:The Trouble with Being Born|15094463|The Trouble with Being Born|Emil M. Cioran|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1649640839l/15094463._SY75_.jpg|580808] 21 Jun: [b:A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court|52186763|A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court|Mark Twain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566234689l/52186763._SX50_SY75_.jpg|2621763] 22 Jun: [b:My Dark Places|36061|My Dark Places|James Ellroy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442468162l/36061._SX50_.jpg|1121999] 07 Jul: [b:Like a Fiery Elephant|19529759|Like a Fiery Elephant The Story of B. S. Johnson|Jonathan Coe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387279702l/19529759._SY75_.jpg|871001] 15 Jul: [b:The Ginger Man|10365011|The Ginger Man|J.P. Donleavy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1688992057l/10365011._SY75_.jpg|810685] 28 Aug: [b:The Music of Chance|19635195|The Music of Chance|Paul Auster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387683821l/19635195._SY75_.jpg|2382110] Sep: [b:Hotel du Lac|55921605|Hotel du Lac|Anita Brookner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1605607249l/55921605._SY75_.jpg|687946] 05 Sep: [b:Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D. H. Lawrence|23253177|Out of Sheer Rage Wrestling with D. H. Lawrence|Geoff Dyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1693047986l/23253177._SY75_.jpg|880896] Oct: [b:Peyton Place (Peyton Place, #1)|10821678|Peyton Place (Peyton Place, #1)|Grace Metalious|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328322124l/10821678._SY75_.jpg|37258] Oct: [b:The Dog of the South|62848086|The Dog of the South|Charles Portis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1664729069l/62848086._SX50_.jpg|47235] Oct: [b:Black Robe|36245200|Black Robe|Brian Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505490865l/36245200._SY75_.jpg|2780299] Nov: [b:The Friends of Eddie Coyle|8562108|The Friends of Eddie Coyle|George V. Higgins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1693139114l/8562108._SX50_.jpg|79293] Nov: [b:New Grub Street|19909080|New Grub Street|George Gissing|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387774666l/19909080._SY75_.jpg|768534] 20 Nov: [b:On Beauty|57939765|On Beauty|Zadie Smith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1620091138l/57939765._SY75_.jpg|910752]
