Schwalbe seems uninterested in navigating more intellectually challenging shores; instead, he serves as a personable, amiable, relentlessly optimistic guide to a curated bookshelf that some readers will find random. He rarely dives deep, remaining consistently chatty, mostly upbeat, and frequently digressive. Indeed, one gets the sense that, given his vast experience in literature, Schwalbe could write another 10 books exactly like this one ... Throughout these pleasant, diverting essays, the author shows us how '[r]eading is an art we practice our whole lives,' and while the book may not hit hard enough for critics or scholars, it should convince even reluctant readers to pick up a book and 'help them find their way in the world and give them pleasure while they are at it.'
Instead of trying to dust off some forgotten tome and convince us of its value, he focuses on its pressing relevance at some critical juncture in his life. He isn’t arguing — and certainly not shilling — on behalf of a book or author; he’s passing on his own experience and leaving us to identify with it or not ... He conveys this humility with his easygoing, egalitarian tone and his high-low eclecticism, which ranges from Homer’s The Odyssey and Melville’s 'Bartleby the Scrivener' to E.B. White’s Stuart Little and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train ... In the end, Schwalbe fulfills the promise of his earlier memoir with this new book, in which the communion of readers trumps even what they’re reading.
I very much enjoyed it. I found it inspiring and charming — a bit fusty at times, but endearingly so. If I’d been in a bad mood, I might have focused more on how it wasn’t quite as emotional as his previous book ... Books, to Schwalbe, are our last great hope to keep us from spiraling into the abyss. It’s an old-fashioned thesis — that this ancient medium can save civilization — but I happen to agree ... I didn’t love every page of Schwalbe’s book. The parts about social media, for instance, seem like well-trodden territory.
Even the thousands of readers who loved The End of Your Life Book Club might find that a little of this kind of pap goes a long way. Fortunately, as with that earlier book, this new one is saved by the author's infectious friendly chattiness ... when Books for Living is at its most winning, it's more like a high-spirited and digressive talk with a knowledgeable bookstore clerk than a series of Encounters with the Universe ... Readers who like this kind of quasi-spiritual way of thinking and talking about books will find Books for Living a sweet and utterly restorative series of vignettes about how books – the right books, at the right times – can not only deepen a life but save it. And even those of us who like our book experience with a little less hooey will be happy to spend some time listening to a die-hard bookworm making lots of good recommendations.
Schwalbe’s essays, alas, are uneven. He is forthcoming with telling details that he draws from his personal life and he writes smooth prose. Yet the reader only occasionally stops to savor a phrase ... Also, with some of the books he considers, Schwalbe doesn’t find a lot to say ... Other essays are lopsided, centered more on the effect of a book rather than on the book itself, with mixed results ... There are, on balance, some essays in the collection in which Schwalbe gets everything — the sense of a literary work and how it affects his life — exactly right ... Schwalbe’s enthusiasm for what he covers is contagious. He suggests enough fascinating books to keep you reading well through 2017.
Will Schwalbe’s latest, Books for Living, is a love letter to the works that have informed and enriched his life … Will’s thoughts on the books I haven’t read were easier to consider. These essays bring to mind the best conversations with fellow avid readers. Will’s thoughts on Wonder did more to make me want to read this blockbuster novel than anything else has. His meditations on how that work of fiction subliminally encourages readers to choose kindness is a welcome reminder for us all … This is a charming collection, one that reminds us of the value in reading. It opens new and creative ways of thinking about beloved works, and serves to introduce lesser-known stories that are equally deserving.
