Name: Book Love
Rating: 4.329670329670329 (91 reviews)
ISBN: 9781449494285

Debbie Tung

Bookworms rejoice! These charming comics capture exactly what it feels like to be head-over-heels for hardcovers. Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung's comics are humorous and instantly recognizable--making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they're understood and appreciated.

Book Love

ella

Y'ALL BOOKWORMS WILL TOTALLY RELATE!! GO READ THIS COMIC BOOK!!!

renee badenoch

I liked this one. It's just a collection of little observational comics about being a book reader, lover, and hoarder, ahem, collector. A bit of the content was a bit too broad and cliché for me to really relate to, i.e, "books let you go on adventures inside your home!" but the awkward dialog and interactions between the "book people" and the normies made me laugh out loud, or sometimes blush and look around to see how Debbie Tung had been recording my conversations.

Deniz Erkaradağ

This is for us: book lovers. You will see yourself in every comic.

Lauren Sullivan

Are you a bookworm? Can you not resist a bookstore? Do you try to squeeze reading time into random bits of your day? Do you agonize over which books to take with you? Would you rather stay home and read than do… well, pretty much anything else? Oh boy, do I have the graphic novel for you.



As an avid reader, this book is extremely relatable. I definitely had a few “IT ME!” moments while reading this (I’ll leave it to you to figure out if the “I stayed up all night reading” panel above was one of them). My only quibble was that most of the love focuses on physical books, so if you’re primarily an ebook reader like me, there’ll be some comics that don’t work quite as well. Reading the panel about trying to decide how many and which books to pack for a short outing did bring me back to ye olden times before ereaders, though.



Most of the book is single-page comics, usually about a particular bookworm concern, from finding out the next book in a series isn’t coming out for a year to realizing you’re at the limit for library checkouts. These are quick, humorous, and very enjoyable. There’s also some lists – different types of libraries, ways to store books, and ways to get out a reading slump, among others. I didn’t care for these as much, except for the wonderfully illustrated list of the author’s recommended books. My favorite part, however, is the beautiful full-page illustrations.



I absolutely love the style. It’s all done in black and white, with a sort of pen on watercolor feel. The main character, a pony-tailed woman, is incredibly expressive, whether she’s crying over finishing a book or excited at her new haul of books. I loved some of the pages so much that I actually stopped reading to go check out the author’s website to see if she sells prints (alas, it seems she doesn’t). I wish some of these were done in color as I think they’d be stunning!



Overall, this is an enjoyable read for any book lover. I’m actually a bit sad this is coming out after the holidays as this would be a great gift for several friends, but there’s always next year!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Caroline Lewicki

This book spoke entirely to who I am as a reader. I'm 100% certain I've said a bulk of the things written in the comic strips.

Sahi K

I feel truly seen. I feel validated. I feel happy and joyful and very very satisfied.

That’s what I have to say after finishing this book and I can promise it’ll be the same reaction from any book lover like me. But be prepared, this is for those book obsessed people whose life revolves around them, not the occasional readers.

Every page, every illustration, every line felt like something I would do or say or reproductions from my own life. I’m one of those who carries a book everywhere I go, would rather read in a corner than go out, and talk obsessively about books to anyone, irrespective of whether they are interested or not. And the gushing and fangirling.... I have never seen so much of myself on page before and I’m so glad this book exists.

My only disagreements - I would rather have coffee than tea while reading, and please don’t dismiss e-readers - I cant imagine my life without them.

This book is the perfect gift for any book lover and I recommend this to anyone who wholeheartedly believes in the power of the written word.

Grace O'Callaghan

This was the perfect book to read on World Book Day. What better way to spend it than a comic book all about reading?

Firstly Debbie Tung’s art is so adorable and magical. She’s just able to perfectly encapsulate emotion in a few lines. 

This was just the most relatable thing to me. I live and breathe books and this just had me laughing out loud at how much I saw myself in the pages.

I also really loved the fact Tung references the online bookish community as it plays a big part in a lot of people’s reading.

Basically, any book lover should check out this adorable little comic.

daisy

i really like it! somethings are a little exaggerated but its still relatable and its also a super quick reading

Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung’s comics are humorous and instantly recognizable—making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they’re understood and appreciated.

Stephanie Volkmer

Fiona Coffey

This is an example of a book about books done right. It's short and sweet, it's personal and relatable. And it isn't pretentious!! While it doesn't have a ton of ~substance~ I didn't really feel like it needed to. Plus the illustrations are very cute. Wow, I miss going to book stores and reading in coffee shops.

Amanda

Renee Delcourt

It's definitely a coffee table book. Super quick and cute. Any one could pick it up and read a page or two and get a chuckle.

Heather Harrington

This was not only super adorable but totally relatable. Loved it!

Book Love

Reviews

Highlights