Book Lust to Go

by Nancy Pearl
Seattle, WA : [Jackson, Tenn.] : Sasquatch Books ; Distributed by PGW/Perseus, c2010.

*This book was received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. As per the rules, I receive a free book in return for a review, and whether it's positive or negative has no affect on my receiving books in the future.*

Readers of the earlier Book Lust books will know what to expect as far as format goes: book lists are divided up by theme, a few short paragraphs list books with titles in bold, along with a short description of each of them. In Book Lust to Go, uber-librarian Nancy Pearl specifically chooses books for armchair traveling. She includes nonfiction, fiction, books set in the chosen location, and books by authors from that location. Most impressively, these are all books she's read.

I enjoyed Book Lust when I read it earlier this year, so I was really excited to win Book Lust to Go from Early Reviewers. Perfect, I thought, to have a reference book to turn to in trying to read more globally. I tried to be selective in adding books to the "to be read" list, since I can keep this book and refer back to it whenever I have need. But Nancy (I feel I can call her by her first name, since she's given me such an insight into her mind as a reader) also includes such compelling reasons for enjoying each title, such a palpable enjoyment of all these books she's read, and most dangerously from time to time quotes from her favorites that I couldn't help myself. Even being "selective," I added a few pages to my TBR notebook. Yet these books are so varied, so informative, so internationally eye opening that I think it will be totally worth it to read all I added and more (remember, I was being selective). My only quibble is that sometimes instead of listing several books, she lists books in one long sentence with many semicolons, making it extremely hard to follow. Though my uncorrected proof does not have this, a lovely feature of the finished copy is the maps in the front of the book with page numbers indicating where each country is covered for easy reference to where you want to travel. So open your TBR notebook, your Excel spreadsheet or what have you, and open up Book Lust to Go to start your armchair traveling.