Hans Weyandt

I enjoy "Books About Books." In this one, independent bookstore owners and employees were asked to recommend books that they particularly liked and/or frequently recommended to their customers and friends. For each store, several of the recommendations are discussed, and there is a list of other books recommended. I found there were many, many authors and books I hadn't heard of. I made an extensive list of books to explore, since in most cases there was little or no information about the book, as only a fraction of the books recommended were described. This led to my discovering on exploration that some were of little or no interest to me, i.e. children's books, technical books, etc., but there was enough there to make this a fun book to peruse. You can also find good indie bookstores for many cities and towns across the US.… (mer)

Picked this up while on vacation in Maine and spending time in Sherman's Books and Stationary (which is a classic indie bookstore -- I visited the Freeport store). The man behind the counter helped me find books I wanted, chatted with me about current reading, and then, when I grabbed this on impulse, said he'd contributed to it (so I got him to autograph it because, hey! why not?)

This one is more like the Nancy Pearl books rather than those "You Must Read This" lists -- these are books people who sell books liked best, and that means something.… (mer)