24 May 2007

Book Log 2007 #17: The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly

For every book that's still around there are several that have been lost in the mists of time, and Kelly does his best to mention all of them.

It's not a bad book, but it could have used some focus. I wound up bailing out about three-quarters of the way through, beaten back by the volume of information. In some cases the entry is more about the author and his life and times than it is any particular lost work, and as interesting as that could be, it just added more to a book that could have used a little restraint. It did have the commuting benefit of being broken up by author, so there was very little having to stop in the middle of a section. But still, it's probably a better book for browsing or looking at specific authors of interest than as something to read as a whole.

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