Lost in the reads

Writer's second memoir on the unparalleled joy of books.

- BY BRIGID FEEHAN

In a statement that could serve as the theme of Bookish, Lucy Mangan's memoir/guide to the joy and power of books and reading, she notes: "If I have done one thing right in my life it is this: I have always read for pleasure and never with an eye to impressing others or keeping up with the bestseller or Booker lists.

Bookish picks up where Mangan's memoir of childhood reading, Bookworm, leaves off. Mangan is entering adolescence and readers of the earlier book will be unsurprised she doesn't find it plain sailing. "Nobody... likes a bluestocking. And they especially don't like those who know the word 'bluestocking' 150 years after it fell out of common use." But the set texts at school are no consolation. Wuthering Heights bores her to "furious tears". Shakespeare was simply too hard. Hardy's Tess was "feminism, yes, but a very quiet sort, and there's lots of countryside to get through in between". Chaucer, unexpectedly, is a hit - he wanted to tell a story, unlike Shakespeare, who was "doing it deliberately".

Mangan, a high-profile writer for the Guardian and publications, burns through her personal reading as avidly as ever.