Books For Living by Will Schwalbe (Book Review)

Books For Living 
By Will Schwalbe
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2016
Print: $25.95
Ebook: $12.99 

In the introduction to Books For Living, the author, Will Schwalbe, plainly states what the purpose of his book is:

"What follows are stories of books I've discovered that have helped me and others in ways big and small with some of the specific challenges of living in our modern world, with all its noise and distractions."

Schwalbe believes that everything we need to know in this world can be found in a book...IF we know where to look. In Books For Living, the author is pointing out the books that  have helped HIM, maybe in the hopes that we will use it as a starting point to making our own lives better. Maybe reading his thoughts about The Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a book that has sat on my shelf for about 20 years now, never read, will lead me to open its pages finally, and discover a work or mode of thought that I would never have found except for reading THIS book.

Each chapter of Books For Living is about a different book, ranging from classics like David Copperfield to newer works like Wonder or even less literary endeavors like The Girl on the Train. There's even a chapter about a COOKBOOK!

After the intro, the first work Shwalbe discusses is really the blueprint for the entire book: The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang. The subject of that book was to slow down and enjoy life. It's ok to relax sometimes. It's ok to just lay in bed and think and read. It's ok to enjoy food and drink. It's ok to disconnect from the world to recharge your batteries. That book was written in the late 1930s so it was a lot easier to get rid of distractors back then (except for World War II), but Schwalbe is a great believer in Yutang's philosophy. He even takes a day every couple of months to have an "unplugged" day with no electronics, just to wander around his house. Of course, implicit in this unplugging is more time to read books.

Schwalbe covers a lot of territory in these chapters and while all of the books he takes up lead to memories, some bad, some good, some of the chapters are weaker than others. For example, I found the placement of The Girl on the Train in this book kind of tacked on just to cash in on its popularity and having no relevant value to me or the author. On the other hand, he can take a newer book like Wonder and come up with some profound thoughts about how human beings should treat each other. On the whole, the majority of the chapters are hits and not misses. To me, the more personal and profound an effect the particular book had on the author, the better that chapter was. So you can really tell which of these works were most important to Schwalbe.

I really enjoyed this book and will seek out the author's other works. This would make a great gift for anyone that loves to read.

My Grade: A-