Imagine keeping a record of every book you've ever read. What would this
reading trajectory say about you? With passion, humor, and insight, the
editor of the New York Times Book Review shares the stories that have
shaped her life.
Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for 28 years - carried
throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to
Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed
from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk -
reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has
a name: Bob.
Bob is Paul's Book of Books, a journal that records every book she's
ever read, from Sweet Valley High to Anna Karenina, from Catch-22 to
Swimming to Cambodia, a journey in reading that reflects her inner
life - her fantasies and hopes, her mistakes and missteps, her dreams
and her ideas, both half-baked and wholehearted. Her life, in turn,
influences the books she chooses, whether for solace or escape,
information or sheer entertainment.
But My Life with Bob isn't really about those books. It's about the
deep and powerful relationship between book and reader. It's about the
way books provide each of us the perspective, courage, companionship,
and imperfect self-knowledge to forge our own path. It's about why we
read what we read and how those choices make us who we are. It's about
how we make our own stories.
