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reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2010-11-16 11:01 pm
reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2010-11-16 11:01 pm
Bob the Book by David Pratt
I cannot find enough good words to praise this book, it’s most likely one of the best book I read this year, one of the most sweet, romantic and well plotted book, with not one, not two, not three, not five, but six happily ever after! Bob the Book is the story of a gay non fiction book on vintage pornography. He is an interesting book, with nice pictures, but truth be told he is not selling as good as the more glossy photobooks on some male p**nstar or the various calendars. But Bob has a nice character, he is a bit haughty at first, but then, weeks after weeks on the shelf of a gay bookstore, he starts to understand how things are going and above all, he falls in love with Moishe, another non fiction book on Orthodox Jewish gay men. It’s very unlikely that they will be sold together, but in the meantime they are enjoying their romance.
When Moishe is bought by a straight woman researching for her own thesis, and Bob by a book lover, the torture of separation is almost unbearable, but Bob’s positive attitude will help him to find the good side of the event. From this moment on Bob’s adventures in the outside world start: he is first bought by a book lover who cherishes him but he has to sell his loved books to pay for his life-saving medicines; on a second hand book market, Bob will meet Angela, a paperback version of Mansfield Park, and Neil, a skinny book on gay poems. Both Angela than Neil lost their lovers, Angela to a flood in which her husband drowned, and Neil to an homophobic fire.
In his adventures Bob and Neil will meet different characters, both human than books: the gay man who doesn’t believe in romance but only since he has never been able to find it, the buddy friends who aren’t able to admit they are in love with each other, the young gay man who doesn’t want to admit he is in love probably fearing to be hurt; among the books they will meet classics and paperbacks, the how to do manual and the playwright. From all of them we will learn something, above all to respect the books, any type of books, even those apparently less important, even on those books you can find something worthy to be read.
This novel is funny, sweet and romantic. I was captivated both by the book than the human characters, it’s impossible for me to distinct the feelings, for all of them I wanted an happily ever after and the authors gave to almost all of them once.
It’s clear the author is a booklover as well, since he made me really thinking to my own books, if I’m treating them well, since they have a souls and you need to respect them. But with me the books are safe, I’m not only a bookaholic, I’m also very jealous of them, and more they are old more I love them. I rescued an encyclopedia (yes an encyclopedia, more than 40 volume) from a second hand market only since it was more than 50 years old: it was in English and the market was in Italy, no one would have bought it. I picked up three books from a street trash can since they were old: a scientific schoolbook (and I hate science), a prayer book (and I’m atheist) and a oscure novel, but they were almost 100 years old and I couldn’t bare the idea of them going through the shredder. I fell in love for a series of books on historical families (like Stuart, Hohenzollern, Hohenstaufen, Medici…), they were 33 volumes printed around the ’50 and ’60; the publisher closed down in the ’70, the books are almost impossible to find; I was able to find 31 volumes, and I’m still searching for the missing 2. After reading this book, I’m glad to think that maybe I’m helping some books to find a peaceful resting place in my bookshelves, and maybe some romance are blossoming right now.
http://www.chelseastationeditions.com/id3.html
Amazon: Bob the Book
Amazon Kindle: Bob the Book
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
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Hi, Elisa!
Thank you for your review!
I had just put this book in my to-buy-list after reading the first pages on amazon (BTW: great feature the one enabling you to read the beginning of a book!). The story really looks delightful and the idea absolutely original and well done.
Concerning books: you are much worse than me! Great! ;-)
Ciao
Antonella
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I love books - it's my addiction. I love the covers, the paper, the ink - there's something special about finding an old book and the way it smells. I enjoy the new ebook technology, but an ebook lacks the spirit that a hard copy book has.
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