My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues

by Pamela Paul

Overview

People Pick • O Magazine Title to Pick Up Now • Vanity Fair Hot Type • Glamour New Book You’re Guaranteed to Love This Summer • LitHub.com Best Book about Books • Buzzfeed Book You Need to Read This Summer • Seattle Times Book for Summer Reading • Warby Parker Blog Book Pick • Google Talks • Harper’s Bazaar • Vogue •The Washington Post • The Economist • The Christian Science Monitor • Salon • The Atlantic

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 twenty-eight 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250182548
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.28(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Review and oversees books coverage at The New York Times. She is also the host of the weekly podcast, Inside The New York Times Book Review. Her books include My Life with Bob, By the Book, Parenting, Inc., Pornified, and The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony. Prior to joining the Times, she was a contributor to Time magazine and The Economist; her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, and Vogue.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS


Introduction: Why Keep Track? 1

1. Brave New World: You Shouldn’t Be Reading That 9
2. Slaves of New York: The Literary Life 19
3. The Trial: A Book with No Ending 27
4. Catch-22: Never Enough 38
5. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Required Reading 54
6. Into That Darkness: Voyeurism 64
7. The Grapes of Wrath: Among Readers 71
8. A Journey of One’s Own: Books That Change Your Life 80
9. Anna Karenina: Heroines 91
10. Swimming to Cambodia: The Company of Narrators 104
11. Wild Swans: Inspirational Reading 116
12. The Secret History: Solitary Reading 129
13. The Wisdom of the Body: In Love with a Book 135
14. The Magic Mountain: Different Interpretations 143
15. Autobiography of a Face: On Self-Help 153
16. Flashman: I Do Not Like Your Books 164
17. The Master and Margarita: Recommendations 175
18. The Hunger Games: No Time to Read 184
19. A Wrinkle in Time: Reading with Children 192
20. Bad News: Tearjerkers 205
21. Les Misérables: Why Read? 219
22. A Spy Among Friends: Other Writers 230

Epilogue: The Lives We Read 238

Acknowledgments 241

Editorial Reviews

[Pamela Paul] is reflective, open and at times achingly funny. My Life with Bob is the book that she was put on this Earth to write.” —The Economist

"Pamela Paul recalls the stories that have given shape to her own narrative in her appealingly roving memoir.... which includes...undersung marvels that boldly take measure of the world—and challenge us to write our own story." —Vogue

“An engaging and…funny memoir…. a delightfully gushing love letter to books — books as a medium that can connect us, transport us and transform us.”—Washington Post

"Bob becomes a memory keeper, not so much of the books...as of the personal associations they hold for her, such as the place where she read them or the people she was with at the time. Paul approaches books with tenderness, desire, insecurity, and, always, ambition."—The New Yorker

“A rollicking, intimate expedition through a brilliant booklover’s heart, mind, and life…. ‘My Life With Bob’ is a fun, accessible, well-written bookalogue; the kind of memoir Pamela Paul would have raved about in the venerable New York Times Book Review if she hadn’t written it.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“A heartwarming reminiscence of the books that reflected and shaped her state of mind at every stage of life. By the end, you’ll be hard pressed to not start keeping a ‘Bob’…of your own.”—Harper’s Bazaar

“A bibliophile’s treasure trove of insights.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Reading Paul, I began to see how much the books you gravitate towards reveal about your truest loves, your most instinctive urges, as well as more thoughtful, curated appetites…. She displays true bravery by listing all of the books she’s finished reading… [it’s] a baring of one’s soul that merits respect.”—Financial Times

"The ultimate book about reading books.... an intimate look into [Paul's] interior life and the ways in which the stories she has read have changed her own story. Clever and heartfelt, My Life With Bob will appeal to anyone with a deep love for reading."—Buzzfeed

"Downright delightful.... a thoroughly agreeable voice to spend time with: energetic, resolute, self-ironic and always passionate about books.... A plot really does ensue — and it’s not strained for — in the form of Paul’s life. And what a life that has been."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A smart, beautifully written memoir about the relationship we have with books and how the books we read frame our lives. This charmer is a must for every beach bag this Summer."—PopSugar

"Compelling, authentic, and every dream of every woman who puts reading before eating, the stories offer a perspective on life.... Perfection in a book, My Life with Bob is a love story for readers and woman who love books too much!"—The Review Broads

"Pamela Paul's My Life with Bob is absolutely essential for those of us to whom books are more or less everything. This is a book I was born to read!"—Robert Gottlieb

“My Life with Bob is a sweet and heady book that casts a serious charm. Our lively and fetching heroine’s journey becomes more thrilling by the page as Pamela Paul perfectly captures the joys of a lifetime devoted to books, as well as the attendant pressure, doubt, and insecurity. Reading this memoir is pure pleasure — funny, brainy, far-reaching— but more than anything, it feels like a call to arms to recommit to our best self: the book person.”—Maria Semple

“In this hilarious, wise, and elegiac account of a life led half in the world and half in books, Pamela Paul writes with courage and exuberance about the bumpy road to maturity. Her voice—tender, moral, madcap, nostalgic, generous—will captivate all but the most stony reader. My Life with Bob is full of hope, full of love, a joyful and poignant reflection on the well-written sentence and the well-lived life.”—Andrew Solomon

"Any book that helps me remember reading the Betsy-Tacy-Tib series as well as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is a book I like. Pamela Paul's My Life With Bob is an absorbing, delightful amalgam — it's a recommended reading list, a personal reflection, and a paean to reading. I’m sorry I never wrote down all the books I read (or even practically any), but I’m so glad Pamela Paul did."—Meg Wolitzer

“Paul is inspired to question why we read, how we read, what we read, and how reading helps us create our own narratives. Readers will be drawn to this witty and authentic tribute to the extraordinary power of books.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A witty, heartfelt, deeply optimistic narrative...Titles about reading and books abound, but this memoir stands in a class by itself. Bibliophiles will treasure, but the addictive storytelling and high-quality writing will vastly increase its audience."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Intelligent, unique, and wise, Paul's book not only remembers a life lived among and influenced by books. It also reveals how the most interesting stories existless as words printed on pages and more as 'stories that lie between book and reader.' A thoughtfully engaging memoir of a life in books."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 02/20/2017
New York Times Book Review editor Paul (The Starter Marriage) takes the term bookworm to a new level in this unusual and intriguing memoir about intermingling her life with the books she’s read. Since high school, Paul has entered every book she’s read (beginning with Kafka’s The Trial) in a battered journal she named Bob (Book of Books); continuing the habit in far-flung destinations in the 1980s and ’90s (Cambodia, China, France, Thailand, Vietnam), she recorded the books that she took along with her. Unlike a diary of thoughts and events she’d like to forget, Bob contains info she wants to remember. Paul was a book-smart, unsociable child growing up on Long Island, the sole girl among seven brothers whose parents divorced when she was “three or four”; books were and remain her refuge, companions, and obsession. She worked at bookstore chain B. Dalton and then in marketing, and eventually landed a job at the New York Times Book Review. After the birth of her third child, she remained in the hospital an extra day to finish The Hunger Games, later finding breastfeeding to be a perfect opportunity for reading. Gazing back through Bob’s pages, Paul is inspired to question why we read, how we read, what we read, and how reading helps us create our own narratives. Readers will be drawn to this witty and authentic tribute to the extraordinary power of books. (May)

Publishers Weekly

★ 04/01/2017
Prepub Alert editor Barbara Hoffert's December 2016 write-up for this book sent librarians scrambling in anticipation of an unparalleled book list and a love letter to reading. The actual memoir requires attention to the subtitle. Yes, there's the list and love letter, but Bob (book of books), the notebook and reading record that has accompanied Paul (editor, New York Times Book Review) since high school, is in some ways a shorthand diary. Bob is the backbone of a witty, heartfelt, deeply optimistic narrative. It's a familiar tale: the development of a die-hard reader. Paul weathers disastrous foreign exchange experiences, living abroad, travel, and relationships (personal and professional), and she does it all inspired by and accompanied by books. The plot is fine; the flawed heroine does what flawed heroines are supposed to do: learn, and make the reader laugh, cry, think, and probably learn something. VERDICT Titles about reading and books abound, but this memoir stands in a class by itself. Bibliophiles will treasure, but the addictive storytelling and high-quality writing will vastly increase its audience. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/16.]—Audrey Snowden, Orrington P.L., ME

Library Journal

Pamela Paul, editor of the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and narrator Eileen Stevens make excellent partners for Paul’s memoir. After a pleasant introduction by Paul herself, Stevens performs with such enthusiasm that she could be the author. Despite the title, the audiobook is not just for those who adore books as much as she does. (Her passion borders on obsession.) In fact, those wishing a book about books will be disappointed; this is a memoir that mentions books without delving into analyses of them. Stevens has a chipper delivery and audible expressiveness, which make her nice company as Paul travels the world and marries a couple of times. I found myself enjoying Paul’s story enough to hope that she’d reinforced her floor to bear the weight of her excess reading material. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

2017-02-20
The editor of the New York Times Book Review writes about a book journal begun in adolescence that unexpectedly came to chronicle her own life story.As a child, Paul (Parenting, Inc.: How the Billion-Dollar Baby Business Has Changed the Way We Raise Our Children, 2008, etc.) found her greatest solace in books. They were private spaces where she could safely indulge her most intimate obsessions with and curiosities about any topic. The author's first effort at writing her own narratives ended with her feeling disgusted at the angst-ridden teen humiliations she routinely "vomit[ed]" into her diary. Her second, more successful effort consisted of a list that cataloged every book she had read, her "Book of Books," or "BOB." On this plain, gray book's unlined pages, Paul was able to "take charge of my own story and make it better" while maintaining both the objectivity and anonymity she prized. It was only much later that she realized Bob also granted access to "where I've been, psychologically and geographically," at different periods in her life. The Norton Anthology of English Literature recalled her college years and how the university was "full of lessons about just how much I didn't know." A memory of how she had mistranslated another title, The Grapes of Wrath ("what had I said? The Plums of Fury"), for her French study-abroad host family reminded her of the escape Paris would come to represent after she started her professional life. Some books, like Thalia Zapatos' A Journey of One's Own, inspired Paul to take leaps of faith that led to several years of traveling around the world and temporary residence in Thailand. Others, like Lucy Grealy's The Autobiography of a Face, helped her cope with major life crises. Intelligent, unique, and wise, Paul's book not only remembers a life lived among and influenced by books. It also reveals how the most interesting stories exist less as words printed on pages and more as "stories that lie between book and reader." A thoughtfully engaging memoir of a life in books.

Kirkus Reviews