Page to Stage Reviews: Book review: Bookish by Lucy Mangan

I’ve heard lots of people recommend Bookworm by Lucy Mangan – in which she recounts her childhood through the lens of the books that she read along the way – in recent months, and it has rapidly made its way up my towering to-be-read list. So how serendipitous that the second book (which can be read as a standalone) is out today. I was fortunate to read an advance copy of Bookish and, needless to say, I absolutely adored it. It is perceptive, funny, moving, and highly relatable – and it made me even more eager to read Bookworm ASAP!

About Bookish by Lucy Mangan

Where Bookworm is the story of Lucy’s childhood and the reads that guided her in those early years, Bookish is about adolescence, university, adulthood, finding love (and yourself), and becoming a mother – half a lifetime through the lens of the books that defined those milestones along the way.

My review of Bookish

It’s clear that author Lucy Mangan is a long-time writer and columnist; her writing is snappy and engaging as she packs a huge amount of information in each of her very digestible chapters. She’s cleverly broken down decades of her life into distinct segments, each concisely covering not only a key parts in her life, for example getting married and the honeymoon that follows (a quiet getaway to book town Hay-on-Wye in Wales spent book shopping and reading – bliss), but also similar types of books and genres that were important to her at that moment in time. It shows how as we experience different things throughout the years, our reading changes and evolves alongside it; books shape us, yes, but our lives shape what we read and connect with just as much. 

This is only the first of many observations I’ve made while reading this incredibly relatable memoir. I may not have experienced all the the same things Lucy did growing up or into adulthood, but the way she talks about books as a guiding thread throughout it all hit me at my very core. The amount of times I thought “This is me!” while turning the pages of Bookish are too many to count. I even ended up reading passages from the book out loud to friends as I had to share the brilliant way that Lucy describes things I had been thinking and experiencing for so long. Here’s an example where she recounts finally having enough disposable income to start building her own library:

“I bought literally thousands of books over those years. It was the splurge to end all splurges. I did, despite Christopher’s best efforts, feel guilt about it – I still feel guilty about it, ten years on. Some people might say there was/is no need to. Second-hand book-shopping is one of the more ethically and environmentally sound pastimes available. It hurts no-one, and maybe even helps a fraction of the economy. I wasn’t living beyond my means. It was my only indulgence. And it made me really, really happy.”  

This is me to a tee; the splurging only on books, mainly second-hand, and still feeling guilty about it. Not to mention the way that Lucy has prioritised books and reading over so many other things in her existence or made it a core part of big life events (see the honeymoon to Hay-on-Wye). She is living the bookish dream, let me tell you. 

While I don’t quite have the same size home library as Lucy does (she’s on 10,000 books and counting, I’m on about 10-15% of that), I do also feel her growing anxiety seeping through those final chapters as she realised she will never be able to read all the books she wants to. There are so many fantastic reads out there already and the publishing industry keeps churning out more and more at a rate that’s unsustainable for even the quickest of readers to keep up with it. Here’s to hoping that Lucy’s next book, because there HAS to be another one (even though we’ve reached pretty much the present time in her Bookworm–Bookish duology), provides tried-and-tested methods to actually making a dent in a dangerously high to-be-read pile. 

Bookish by Lucy Mangan truly encompasses all the very best things a book lover looks for in a memorable read. It’s a genuinely fascinating memoir, recounting the ups and downs of Lucy’s life in both a moving an often funny way. It’s jam-packed with book recommendations – some the reader will have heard of and devoured themselves, others that will immediately get added to that ever-growing list of “one day” reads. And, most of all, it is so very relatable. I have never felt more seen. I’m not alone and my obsession with books and the words and fictional worlds within them is, in fact, normal – nay, essential.