I Murdered My Library (Kindle Single)

Despite that dramatic title, and the cover modelled on the green-jacketed vintage Penguin Crime series, this is not a murder story. It is, instead, a delightful mix of memoir, essay and, above all, a paean to books - owning them, reading them and even writing them.

I found it especially entertaining

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as it gradually became clear that Ms Grant lives, or at least formerly lived, near me. She lovingly describes the now defunct Prospero's Books shop down in Crouch End (-though she never names the locality, Prospero's was a well known landmark in North London), and she even makes an oblique reference to the marvellous Muswell Hill Bookshop which is, literally, just around the corner from where I live.

The book is loosely draped around an account of the quandary she found herself in when she had to move to a smaller apartment and finally admitted to herself that she simply had too many books. Now why does that sound familiar? She recounts the painful experience of deciding what books she can dispense with and which she simply has to keep.

Meanwhile she also describes her growing affection for her Kindle which, in addition to saving valuable shelf space, also allows her to enlarge the font to a manageable size. I certainly sympathised with, and recognised, her struggles to cope with seemingly ever-smaller print.

I haven't read any f her previous books but will certainly now be looking out for them. Her prose shows easy style and is readily accessible, and she writes with an engaging tone.

This was a chance buy, but one I was very satisfied with.

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