Title: Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book
Author: (ed) Sean Manning
Format: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Pub Date: 2010
Read: Feb 2011
Purchased: The Strand Bookstore
Why: I had contemplated buying it before, but the review on Book Slut convinced me to go through with it
Fulfills Challenge? Yes
Notes: N/A
Review/Thoughts:
This is the perfect book for those who love the printed and bound word, examining books in terms of their tangibility. The essays in Bound to Last don’t merely discuss author’s favorite books but their most cherished book (as object). And there are lots of great essays in here. Some authors choose to add in a bit about why the object means so much to them and why their attachment to the book would not be the same without that physical quality; others skip that altogether but the point is still clear. There were a couple of dud essays, but most were at least solid. One small gripe I had was the inclusion of David Foster Wallace’s wife, who, as I understand it, is not actually a writer. Her essay felt, well, less writerly than others, and I was kind of annoyed that she seemed to be in there merely because her husband was DFW. I feel bad for issuing that complaint given the circumstances and the fact that I would never want to be in her situation and would never wish that on anyone, but the title of the book does say 30 WRITERS, so it’s worth pointing out. One of the more moving essays included Jim Knipfel’s piece on Mason & Dixon. While reading Pynchon’s novel, he became blind and was unable to finish it until years later when he found the audio book. The book has a little something for everyone — most essays cover a work of fiction but there are plenty that are outside the box of what one would expect of a cherished book, including the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, Believe It or Not!, The New Professional Chef, and Dungeon Masters Guide (I’ll admit this last was my least favorite, but I can appreciate its inclusion).
Oh one more small disappointment. The cover of this book is so clearly a ripoff of The Catcher in the Rye that I was surprised to find that there were no essays on Catcher inside.
Final Verdict: 
