Books About Books

     You know you're a reader if you read books about books, but, surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a subgenre name for this sub- or sub-subgenre, at least that I could find.  Does bibliophilia work? I don't know, but there are a lot of books that fit.

    The most recent book that fits here is Americanon, by Jess McHugh, published in June 2021. In Americanon, McHugh looks at thirteen nonfiction books that  had huge impacts on America and Americans. These books sold hundreds of thousands, even millions of copies, and many of them are still published in updated versions decades or centuries after their first publication.  With each book, she goes into detail about their origin, their authors and their impact.  She includes books like The Old Farmers Almanac, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, McGuffey's Readers, Noah Webster's Dictionary and spellers, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Emily Post's Etiquette.  These books all are self-help books, meant to make better Americans of their readers. In fact, they are very nationalistic. For example, Webster's Dictionary and spellers and McGuffey's Readers  were created in order to standardize the language and education of Americans of different regions with different cultural backgrounds, creating a new American culture and imparting moral lessons along the way. These books had a massive impact on America; updated versions are still published. In fact, I was surprised to learn that some homeschoolers still use McGuffey's Readers. I learned a lot from this book, and it was very entertaining.

    The other "books about books" titles that I list here are pretty self-explanatory, but I do want to talk about a couple of other titles. One is Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry. McMurtry was one of my favorite American novelists, known especially for westerns like Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, and Comanche Moon, and he just passed away in March of 2021.  Books is about his personal journey as a reader and then as a writer. He writes about growing up in his "bookless" hometown of Archer City, Texas, and his transition from cowboy to reader to writer to "bookman," eventually opening several bookstores specializing in rare and collectable books. It's a very entertaining read.

    Finally, a great source of "books about books" is the Great Sources  catalog. Simply search for "books," and you'll find numerous lectures about books  that have had a great influence on world or American history. You can find courses on their website and on Audible.