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If nobody talks about books, if they are not discussed or somehow contended with, literature ceases to be a conversation, ceases to be dynamic. Most of all, it ceases to be intimate. It degenerates into a monologue or a mutter. An unreviewed book is a struck bell that gives no resonance. Without reviews, literature would be oddly mute in spite of all those words on all those pages of all those books. Reviewing makes of reading a participant sport, not a spectator sport.

The first function of a book review should be, I believe, to give some idea of the contents and character of the book.

Most books reviews aren't very well-written. They tend to be more about the reviewer than the book.

I started to write book reviews as a means of recording my thoughts about what I'd read before all memory of them vanished.

A book reviewer is usually a barker before the door of a publisher's circus.

If I like a book, I tend to read the author's entire collection. But I choose mainly through personal recommendations, general word of mouth and book reviews.

I look upon book reviews as an infantile disease which new-born books are subject to.

I mean, when you're tired of book reviews, you're tired of life.

You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't done what I do. Most book reviewers haven't written 11 novels. Many of them haven't written one.

I'm never a fan of the sociopathic kind of reviewing, people who are sort of self-immolating and have social problems or whatever, and let it out in literary-criticism form. I just feel like book reviewing should be respectful and calm and not filled with bile.

The individual attributes of warmth and competence are often perceived to be negatively correlated. That doesn't mean they actually are, but that's how people perceive the world. So, cruel people, those who gave negative book reviews, for instance, were seen as less likeable but as more intelligent.

Book reviewers are little old ladies of both sexes.

I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk.

The authors of book reviews would consider themselves dishonored were they to mention, as they should, the subject of the book.

So, you see, it's a real chore for me to write a book review because it's like a contest. It's like I'm writing that book review for every bad book reviewer I've ever known and it's a way of saying [thrusts a middle finger into the air] this is how you ought to do it. I like to rub their noses in it.

We set up a beta site, a test site, with movie, music and book reviews. If you're reading them and you want to buy a book or a ticket for a movie that's reviewed on the site, you can do that without leaving our site.

I’m interested in so many different things and I’d like to cover a lot of territory. I’m trying to see my show as the Sunday Times. You have the Arts & Leisure section, you have the Op-Ed page, you have the Book Review...even the Style section has those wonderful essays about relationships.

The whole family is a bunch of dangerous freaks...Most are ex-cons or junkies or deranged from inbreeding. Five have died violently, three are back in prison, two have gone insane from untreated venereal disease, and one writes book reviews.

Book reviews have never helped me. Most of them erred in their interpretations and their work has been a waste of time.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

I'd sit at my kitchen table and start scanning help-wanted ads on my laptop, but then a browser tab would blink and I'd get distracted and follow a link to a long magazine article about genetically modified wine grapes. Too long, actually, so I'd add it to my reading list. Then I'd follow another link to a book review. I'd add the review to my reading list, too, then download the first chapter of the book—third in a series about vampire police. Then, help-wanted ads forgotten, I'd retreat to the living room, put my laptop on my belly, and read all day. I had a lot of free time.

A mom reads you like a book, and wherever she goes, people read you like a glowing book review.

Most people don't have the money to spend on advertising to create awareness among readers, nor do they have the contacts at newspapers or magazines to get their books reviewed.

Note that the #1 Top Reviewer at Amazon (4550 book reviews) is Harriet Klausner, formerly an acquisitions librarian in Pennsylvania. This just goes to show that librarians were destined to rule the Web.

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Home › Books & Reading Quotes

160 Quotes About Books & Reading

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Many of us have special memories of the books that have inspired us, and have learned the profound effect that reading the right book can have at the right moment. If you’re short on time, reading some quotes about books is the next best thing.

Books have the power to transport us to new worlds and different times , but they can also take us back to the important moments in our own lives.

From building your vocabulary to reducing stress, preventing age-related cognitive decline and increasing your ability to empathize, reading books is an easy way to look after your mind and body.

Whether you’re an avid reader or wish you read more, we hope you enjoy these quotes about books and reading!

Page Contents

Quotes About Books

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain

Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R.R. Martin

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. Charles W. Eliot

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Novel

The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. Isabel Allende

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. J.K. Rowling

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. Carl Sagan

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus

Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. Dr. Seuss

That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie

I love the smell of book ink in the morning. Umberto Eco

Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. Bill Patterson

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially. Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. E.B. White

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Charles Baudelaire

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island. Walt Disney

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron

The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. Kurt Vonnegut

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud. Nnedi Okorafor

Books were my pass to personal freedom. Oprah Winfrey

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. David Mitchell

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads. Francois Mauriac

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. C.S. Lewis

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. Austin Phelps

The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. George Orwell, 1984

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. C.S. Lewis

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. Diane Duane

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. Anne Lamott

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher

I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. Anne Herbert

Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. Ursula K. LeGuin

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. Terry Pratchett

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! Thomas Babington Macaulay

Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. David Quammen

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen

Happiness. That’s what books smells like. Happiness. That’s why I always wanted to have a book shop. What better life than to trade in happiness? Saran MacLean

Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree? Christopher Paolini

Quotes About Reading

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx

Reading brings us unknown friends. Honore de Belzac

My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. Jean Rhys

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. Malorie Blackman

We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind. Anna Quindlen

Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. Napoleon Bonaparte

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. Harper Lee

Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read. Jorge Luis Borges

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. Mary Wortley Montagu

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. Abraham Lincoln

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Rene Descartes

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. James Baldwin

Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay. William Styron

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. LeGuin

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. Ben Okri

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift. Kate DiCamillo

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. Roald Dahl

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. George Saunders

Reading—even browsing—an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. James Gleick

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. Khaled Hosseini

I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time. Virginia Woolf

Reading means borrowing. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds. Roxane Gay

Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style. R.L. Stine

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Rainer Maria Rilke

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. Alan Bennett, The History Boys

It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else. John Waters

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. Sir Francis Bacon

The world was hers for the reading. Betty Smith

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. Voltaire

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Stephen King

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Robert Frost

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head. Paul Auster

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting. Walter Mosley

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. Joyce Carol Oates

A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood

Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers. Steven Spielberg

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. Annie Dillard

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. John Locke

Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. William Faulkner

Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. Louis L’Amour

Reading was a joy, a desperately needed escape — I didn’t read to learn, I was reading to read. Christian Bauman

Reading is departure and arrival. Terri Guillemets

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” President Harry Truman

Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Nora Ephron

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. P.J. O’Rourke

Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. Lena Dunham

The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. Mark Twain

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. Robertson Davies

Leaders are always readers. Kevin Trudeau

Ready for more reading? Check out our list of 8 Books for Graduate Students and flip some great pages today.

The Best Literary Quotes

Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. Holbrook Jackson

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. Ezra Pound

I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. H.P. Lovecraft

Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other. A.S. Byatt, Possession

If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories. Michael Ende

There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away. Emily Dickinson

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde

In the end, we’ll all become stories. Margaret Atwood

Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read. Anne Brontë

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. Roald Dahl, Matilda

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. Cassandra Clare

Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. J.D. Salinger

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only one. George R.R. Martin

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. Robert Louis Stevenson

Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them. Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. C.S. Lewis

Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?” Mo had said…”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar. Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own. John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief. Franz Kafka

We hope you’ve loved these quotes about books and reading.

It’s never too late (or early) to expand your horizons and start reading, and reading books is even good for your physical and mental health . So star turning those pages and getting inspired through reading today.

Natalie Seale

3 thoughts on “160 Quotes About Books & Reading”

Thank you for all of these book quotes. I like to write them in my book journal and reread them often.

Thanks so much, for this wonderful book quotes.

My favorite quote is “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”– Erasmus

Thank you for this very interesting collection of thought-provoking quotes. If felt good to agree and disagree with them all – with none leaving me untouched.

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40 Reading Quotes That Will Make You Crave a Good Book

Curl up with these quotes.

Y ou can find all sorts of beautiful, inspirational quotes in the books that you read—but there are no shortage of great quotes about reading itself, too. Bibliophiles will love these reading quotes from everyone from writers to former presidents and first ladies. They'll leave you longing to find a new great read. Plus, check out our favorite quotes  from books.

Reading is paradise

"I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library." —Jorge Luis Borges . Maybe one of the most impressive libraries in every state fits the bill!

Reading is friendship

"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend." —Paul Sweeney .

Reading is addictive

"Reading one book is like eating one potato chip." —Diane Duane. All different kinds of books can be addicting, but these are the 20 true crime books you won't be able to put down .

Reading is immortality

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one." —George R. R. Martin . Speaking of, here are the 100 books everyone should read before they die .

Reading is education

“My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” —Malcolm X.  Here are 15 essential books for learning about race relations and anti-racism .

Reading is necessary

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." —Joseph Brodsky . And don't forget, your brain needs you to read every day .

Reading is eternal

"A good book has no ending." —R. D. Cumming . These reading quotes definitely apply to these 41 highest-rated books on Goodreads .

Reading is discovery

"No one ever reads a book. He reads himself through books." —Romain Rolland .

Reading is teaching

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all." —Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. These are the 25 best children's books ever written .

Reading is just a room away

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." —Groucho Marx . Some of these reading quotes are pretty funny.

Reading is hard to resist

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" —Henry Ward Beecher . Find out the best-loved bookstore in every state .

Reading is that warm, cozy feeling

"Reading takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." —Hazel Rochman. 

Reading is not going anywhere

"Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators." —Stephen Fry

Reading is a window to the soul

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." —Oscar Wilde

Reading is a healthy relationship

"Books are the ultimate dump-ees: Put them down and they'll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back." —John Green .

Reading is a matter of taste

"Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself." —George Bernard Shaw. 

Reading is collaboration

"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it." —Samuel Johnson . Have you read these 25 bestselling books of the decade ?

Reading is easy to mess up

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read." —Mark Twain

Reading is formative

"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." —Ralph Waldo Emerson . Read these 25 uplifting quotes that will stay with you .

Reading is never enough

"I read my eyes out and can't read half enough... The more one reads the more one sees we have to read." —John Adams . In addition to reading quotes, Commanders-in-Chief are responsible for some of these funny president quotes .

Reading is a fashion statement

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." —P. J. O'Rourke

Reading is a mental statement

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." —Haruki Murakami . For something different, pick up one of the works of these 23 contemporary authors you should have heard of by now .

Reading is a light in the dark

"Fairytales don't tell children that dragons exist... Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed." —Gilbert K. Chesterton.  Check out the most popular fairytale stories of all time .

Reading is worth looking forward to

"Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." —Kathleen Norris

Reading is relaxation

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." —C. S. Lewis.  Sounds great! Just like these reading quotes, these calming photos will instantly make you feel warm and cozy.

Reading is the first step

"Think before you speak. Read before you think." — Fran Lebowitz

Reading is a spell

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." —Stephen King .

Reading is second nature

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." —Harper Lee .

Reading is rereading

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads." —François Mauriac .

Reading is instant comfort

"Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book." —Jane Smiley

Reading is joy

"When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness." —Vincent Starrett

Reading is power

"A beggar's book out-worths a noble's blood." —William Shakespeare . We bet you didn't know that these common expressions were coined by Shakespeare .

Reading is time travel

"Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic." —Carl Sagan

Reading is hope

"Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light." —Vera Nazarian

Reading is wisdom

"Literature is news that stays news." —Ezra Pound .

Reading is transformative

"A good book is an event in my life." —Stendhal

Reading is a gift

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." —Emilie Buchwald . In fact, here are some of the best books for grandparents to read to their grandchildren .

Reading is dangerous

"People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned." —Saul Bellow

Reading is the end-all

"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book." —Stéphane Mallarmé

Reading is up to you

"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it." —Toni Morrison . These reading quotes encourage writing, too—imagine creating something that someone else will love to read! Next, read 35 life-changing quotes you won't forget .

The post 40 Reading Quotes That Will Make You Crave a Good Book appeared first on Reader's Digest .

The 22 best book quotes — and the books they come from

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• Some of the best quotes about life and love come from literature.
• We've gathered some of the best book quotes as well as the books they're from.
• Want more books? Check out our list of the best classic books .

Great literature has gifted us some of the most meaningful and timeless quotes about life, love, and everything in between. Writers can put words to the feelings and experiences we can't quite capture ourselves and leave us with quotes that resonate long after we've turned the page. Readers have found moving quotes in everything from gothic classics to contemporary young adult reads . 

Sometimes, we're inspired by a quote that we didn't even know came from a book. I've heard "Not all those who wander are lost" countless times but never knew it was from a beloved fantasy series. To create this list, I looked at some of the most memorable and moving quotes from literature throughout time. For readers looking for a new inspirational read or wondering where some of the greatest lines originated from, here are some of the best literary quotes and the books they came from.

The 22 best book quotes of all time:

"love is or it ain't. thin love ain't love at all.".

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.29

" Beloved " is a Pultizer Prize-winning historical fiction about Sethe, an escaped slave still running from her past 18 years later. Haunted both metaphorically by her memories and literally by the ghost of her baby, Sethe's past and present collide when a mysterious teenage girl arrives with the same name engraved upon her child's tombstone.

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $5.47

This adored classic is about four sisters — Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy — who are struggling to survive in New England during the Civil War. First published in 1869, this novel has delighted readers for generations as they follow the sisters on each of their unique journeys to womanhood. 

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.99

First published in 1969, " Slaughterhouse-Five " is an anti-war novel about Billy Pilgrim, who becomes a chaplain's assistant in the US. Army during World War II. While the story begins with Billy's childhood and continues years after the war, Billy occasionally travels through time to reflect upon his life, humanity, and the devastating effects of war.

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.89

" The Alchemist " is a powerful and inspirational story full of wisdom about a boy named Santiago who travels to Egypt from Spain in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. On his adventure, Santiago encounters numerous obstacles, meets interesting new people, and discovers so much more than the treasure he once sought.

"There is always something left to love."

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez, available at Amazon and Bookshop , $14.49

This beautiful multi-generational story of the Buendía family begins with José Arcadio Buendía, the founding patriarch of the town of Macondo. Following seven generations of the family through feuds, friendships, and technological advancements, this novel uses magical realism to explore extraordinary moments through time.

"What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?"

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.98

" The Hate U Give " is a moving and timely young adult read about Starr Carter, a 16-year-old who witnesses her best friend, Khalil, get shot and killed by the police. When his death makes national headlines, everyone wants to hear what really happened, but Starr is fully aware of what telling the truth could mean as well as the consequences of staying silent.

"They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."

"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous " by Ocean Vuong, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.67

This stunning and poetic novel is a letter from a son to his mother, who cannot read. Little Dog is in his 20s, exploring and speaking frankly about sexuality, masculinity, grief, and race as he unravels his family's history rooted in Vietnam, leading to an unforgettable conclusion in this powerful novel about humanity and language. 

"Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for."

"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.22

Loved as a funny and realistic view on war, " Catch-22 " is about Yossarian, a bombardier during World War II who is mad that thousands of enemies are trying to kill him while his army continues to increase the number of dangerous missions he's required to fly. Yossarian finds himself in a Catch-22, a bureaucratic rule that says men who continue to fly dangerous missions should be considered insane, yet if they make a request to be removed, they are proven sane and ineligible for relief.

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am."

"The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $15

" The Bell Jar " is a semi-autobiographical novel and a haunting classic from Sylvia Plath. The book follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman in Boston who is consumed by depression and anxiety as her mental state worsens over time.

"Time moves slowly, but passes quickly."

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.99

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, " The Color Purple " is a magnificent and important novel about the abuse silently suffered by Black women in the 20th century. Celie and Nettie are sisters who were separated as children but continue to communicate and share messages of hope through letters that sustain them through seemingly insurmountable pain in this story of strength and redemption.

"Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass."

"The Round House" by Louise Erdrich, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.25

This 2012 National Book Award winner follows a young boy on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota whose community and family is changed forever in the wake of a terrible crime. Richly layered, this profound mystery is about so much more than finding a criminal and seeking justice.

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."

"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13.99

" Invisible Man " is a 1952 classic that shaped American literature as an unnamed man from the South who gets a scholarship to an all-Black school in Harlem but must participate in a horrifying and humiliating "battle royal" in order to claim his spot. Powerful and raw, this novel explores identity and belonging as the narrator continues to search for his individuality in a society that doesn't want him to be himself. 

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $5.52

First published in 1818, " Frankenstein " is a horror classic about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who brings a monster to life and flees his laboratory in disgust, to return the next day and find that the creature is missing. In this novel that explores the dark power of alienation, Frankenstein's monster tells the devastating story to his creator of his first challenging days in the world.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.99

In this classic French children's book , a young prince meets a pilot whose plane has crashed in the desert, who begins to tell him his story of traveling across various planets and all he had seen and learned along the way. One of the most translated books in the world, " The Little Prince " is for readers of all ages who wish to reminisce upon the nostalgic innocence of childhood.

"Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"

"Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.99

" Don Quixote " is a historical novel from the 1600s and one of the top-selling books of all time . Quixano is a young nobleman who decides to become a knight-errant after reading countless romances and falling in love with the idea of chivalry. Under the name "Don Quixote de la Mancha," Quixano brings the witty Sancho Panza along as his squire on his quest for knighthood.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.36

" Wuthering Heights " is a classic, gothic novel from 1847 about two families — the Lintons and the Earnshaws — and their relationships with the Earnshaws' adopted son, Heathcliff. Full of complex characters, this classic follows Heathcliff's young friendship with his benefactor's daughter, Cathy, as it grows and morphs into a passionate and twisted romance.

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.35

" I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings " is Maya Angelou's first book in her multi-volume autobiography series. This installment offers a glimpse at Maya Angelou's early years as she struggles against racism when she and her brother are sent to live with their grandmother in a small Southern town. When she returns to live with her mother, a horrible attack changes Maya Angelou's life forever in this memoir about identity, race, and hope in the face of impossible circumstances. 

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.99

Offred can remember enjoying life with her husband and daughter not long ago. Now, trapped in a dystopian present where women are only valued if they have viable ovaries, Offred is the Commander's handmaid, forced to lie down for him once a month and pray she gets pregnant in this devastatingly memorable read .

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $6.10

Hazel's terminal cancer diagnosis has been extended by a few years when she meets a gorgeous boy named Augustus in her support group. Immediately drawn to one another, they agree to read each other's favorite books, launching a whirlwind teenage romance that's full of love and heartbreak.

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."

"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.98

" The Namesake " is Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel and explores the immigrant experience through the Ganguli family, whose story begins as Ashoke and Ashima uproot their traditional life in Calcutta and move to America shortly after their arranged marriage so Ashoke can attend school at MIT. When Ashima names their child Gogol, the meaning of his name continues to follow him through his life as he navigates the expectations of a first-generation immigrant.  

"We accept the love we think we deserve."

"Perks of Being A Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.19

In this unique coming-of-age novel set in the 1990s, Charlie is a freshman in high school who is torn between passivity and a budding passion for life while also being stuck between childhood and adulthood. This book is a compilation of his letters to an unknown recipient, discussing the challenges he faces with his family, in school, and in his personal life.

"Not all those who wander are lost."

"The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkein, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.27

" The Fellowship of the Ring " is the first novel in the classic fantasy "Lord of the Rings" series. In this book , the hobbit Bilbo Baggins entrusts young Frodo Baggins with an incredible and dangerous task: To take the powerful Ring to the Cracks of Doom and destroy it once and for all. Frodo sets off on an epic adventure across Middle-Earth in this beloved and revered novel.

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60 Quotes About Reading That’ll Inspire You To Pick Up A Book

Open your heart to these words from authors and celebrities about their favorite pastime

• Quotes On The Magic Of Reading

Quotes For Book Lovers

Quotes about reading that will expand your horizons.

• Reading Quotes For Children

Fiordaliso / Getty Images

Few things are better than reading a good book on your porch on a warm summer night, but sometimes it’s nice to get some encouragement from other readers to get those pages turning. That’s why we’ve pulled some quotes about reading that are sure to satisfy every kind of reader. We even have some quotes about reading for the kids and students in your life. 

Quotes About The Magic Of Books

Southern Living

• “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.” ― Walt Disney
• “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” ― Victor Hugo
• “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ― Jane Austen
• “Books are the mirrors of the soul.”― Virginia Woolf
• “Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” ― John Locke
• “I can survive well enough on my own – if given the proper reading material.” ― Sarah J. Maas
• “Literature is my Utopia” ― Helen Keller
• “If a book is well written, I always find it too short.” ― Jane Austen
• “Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.” ― Louisa May Alcott
• “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” ― Anna Quindlen
• “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” ― Stephen King
• “A book is a gift you can open again and again.” ― Garrison Keillor
• “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” ― Harper Lee
• “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”― Ernest Hemingway
• “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”― Lemony Snicket
• “The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” ― René Descartes
• “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Cicero
• “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis 
• “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” ― Henry David Thoreau
• “I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” ― Emma Thompson
• “I guess there are never enough books.” ― John Steinbeck
• “For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.” ― Audrey Hepburn
• “Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real.” ― Nora Ephron
• “The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.”― Eleanor Roosevelt
• “You will learn most things by looking, but reading gives understanding. Reading will make you free.” ― Paul Rand
• “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ― Jane Austen
• “I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book.” ― Benedict Cumberbatch
• "Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book." ― E.B. White
• “What I love most about reading: It gives you the ability to reach higher ground. And keep climbing.” ― Oprah
• “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” ― Margaret Fuller
• “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “I’ve always thought that a good book should be either the entry point inward, to learn about yourself, or a door outward, to open you up to new worlds.” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid
• "I'm reading so much and exposing myself to so many new ideas. It almost feels like the chemistry and the structure of my brain is changing so rapidly sometimes,” ― Emma Watson
• "Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind," ― Toni Morrison
• “I have challenged myself that I will read thousands of books and I will empower myself with knowledge. Pens and books are the weapons that defeat terrorism,” ― Malala Yousafzai
• “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” ― Joseph Addison
• “Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.”― Mary Schmich
• “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” ― Joyce Carol Oates
• “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled “This could change your life.”― Helen Exley
• “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” ― Mortimer J. Adler
• "One of the many gifts that books give readers is a connection to each other. When we share an affection for a writer, an author or a story, we also have a better understanding of people unlike ourselves. Books cultivate empathy." ― Sarah Jessica Parker 
• "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened, and after you are finished reading one, you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was." ― Ernest Hemingway 
• "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." ― Benjamin Franklin

Quotes About Reading For Children And Students

• “There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” ― Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” ― Roald Dahl
• “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” ― C.S. Lewis
• “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” ― Napoléon Bonaparte
• “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”― Maya Angelou
• “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” ― Harry Truman
• "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go," ― Dr. Seuss 
• "I wouldn't be a songwriter if it wasn't for books that I loved as a kid. I think that when you can escape into a book it trains your imagination to think big and to think that more can exist than what you see." ― Taylor Swift 
• "Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible," ― Barack Obama 
• “I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” ​​― Maya Angelou
• “Don’t give up reading, the more you practice, the easier it will get.” ― unknown
• “Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them.“ ― Judy Blume
• “A child who carries a book with a bookmark in it is in two places at the same time.” ― Tony Abbott
• “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young” ― Maya Angelou 
• “I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

Related Articles

Book Reviews

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.

What is a review?

A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. For a similar assignment, see our handout on literature reviews .

Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Typically, reviews are brief. In newspapers and academic journals, they rarely exceed 1000 words, although you may encounter lengthier assignments and extended commentaries. In either case, reviews need to be succinct. While they vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:

• First, a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
• Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
• Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.

Becoming an expert reviewer: three short examples

Reviewing can be a daunting task. Someone has asked for your opinion about something that you may feel unqualified to evaluate. Who are you to criticize Toni Morrison’s new book if you’ve never written a novel yourself, much less won a Nobel Prize? The point is that someone—a professor, a journal editor, peers in a study group—wants to know what you think about a particular work. You may not be (or feel like) an expert, but you need to pretend to be one for your particular audience. Nobody expects you to be the intellectual equal of the work’s creator, but your careful observations can provide you with the raw material to make reasoned judgments. Tactfully voicing agreement and disagreement, praise and criticism, is a valuable, challenging skill, and like many forms of writing, reviews require you to provide concrete evidence for your assertions.

Consider the following brief book review written for a history course on medieval Europe by a student who is fascinated with beer:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600, investigates how women used to brew and sell the majority of ale drunk in England. Historically, ale and beer (not milk, wine, or water) were important elements of the English diet. Ale brewing was low-skill and low status labor that was complimentary to women’s domestic responsibilities. In the early fifteenth century, brewers began to make ale with hops, and they called this new drink “beer.” This technique allowed brewers to produce their beverages at a lower cost and to sell it more easily, although women generally stopped brewing once the business became more profitable.

The student describes the subject of the book and provides an accurate summary of its contents. But the reader does not learn some key information expected from a review: the author’s argument, the student’s appraisal of the book and its argument, and whether or not the student would recommend the book. As a critical assessment, a book review should focus on opinions, not facts and details. Summary should be kept to a minimum, and specific details should serve to illustrate arguments.

Now consider a review of the same book written by a slightly more opinionated student:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 was a colossal disappointment. I wanted to know about the rituals surrounding drinking in medieval England: the songs, the games, the parties. Bennett provided none of that information. I liked how the book showed ale and beer brewing as an economic activity, but the reader gets lost in the details of prices and wages. I was more interested in the private lives of the women brewsters. The book was divided into eight long chapters, and I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to read it.

There’s no shortage of judgments in this review! But the student does not display a working knowledge of the book’s argument. The reader has a sense of what the student expected of the book, but no sense of what the author herself set out to prove. Although the student gives several reasons for the negative review, those examples do not clearly relate to each other as part of an overall evaluation—in other words, in support of a specific thesis. This review is indeed an assessment, but not a critical one.

Here is one final review of the same book:

One of feminism’s paradoxes—one that challenges many of its optimistic histories—is how patriarchy remains persistent over time. While Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 recognizes medieval women as historical actors through their ale brewing, it also shows that female agency had its limits with the advent of beer. I had assumed that those limits were religious and political, but Bennett shows how a “patriarchal equilibrium” shut women out of economic life as well. Her analysis of women’s wages in ale and beer production proves that a change in women’s work does not equate to a change in working women’s status. Contemporary feminists and historians alike should read Bennett’s book and think twice when they crack open their next brewsky.

This student’s review avoids the problems of the previous two examples. It combines balanced opinion and concrete example, a critical assessment based on an explicitly stated rationale, and a recommendation to a potential audience. The reader gets a sense of what the book’s author intended to demonstrate. Moreover, the student refers to an argument about feminist history in general that places the book in a specific genre and that reaches out to a general audience. The example of analyzing wages illustrates an argument, the analysis engages significant intellectual debates, and the reasons for the overall positive review are plainly visible. The review offers criteria, opinions, and support with which the reader can agree or disagree.

Developing an assessment: before you write

There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft. See our handout on argument .

What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.

• What is the thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
• What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
• How does the author support their argument? What evidence do they use to prove their point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
• How does the author structure their argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
• How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?

Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:

• Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they write about?
• What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts”—alongside naming “bests” and “onlys”—can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.

Writing the review

Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Check out our handout on thesis statements . Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.

Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.

Introduction

Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:

• The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
• Relevant details about who the author is and where they stand in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
• The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
• The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
• Your thesis about the book.

Summary of content

This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.

The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as a class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument. See our handout on summary for more tips.

Analysis and evaluation of the book

Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly. You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book. If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight. Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.

Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis. This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation. Did the body of your review have three negative paragraphs and one favorable one? What do they all add up to? The Writing Center’s handout on conclusions can help you make a final assessment.

Finally, a few general considerations:

• Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be.
• With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review.
• Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
• Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled—and sometimes obligated—to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
• A great place to learn about book reviews is to look at examples. The New York Times Sunday Book Review and The New York Review of Books can show you how professional writers review books.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Drewry, John. 1974. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: Greenwood Press.

Hoge, James. 1987. Literary Reviewing. Charlottesville: University Virginia of Press.

Sova, Dawn, and Harry Teitelbaum. 2002. How to Write Book Reports , 4th ed. Lawrenceville, NY: Thomson/Arco.

Walford, A.J. 1986. Reviews and Reviewing: A Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to Write a Book Review: A Comprehensive Tutorial With Examples

You don’t need to be a literary expert to craft captivating book reviews. With one in every three readers selecting books based on insightful reviews, your opinions can guide fellow bibliophiles toward their next literary adventure.

Learning how to write a book review will not only help you excel at your assigned tasks, but you’ll also contribute valuable insights to the book-loving community and turn your passion into a professional pursuit.

In this comprehensive guide,  PaperPerk  will walk you through a few simple steps to master the art of writing book reviews so you can confidently embark on this rewarding journey.

What is a Book Review?

A book review is a critical evaluation of a book, offering insights into its content, quality, and impact. It helps readers make informed decisions about whether to read the book.

Writing a book review as an assignment benefits students in multiple ways. Firstly, it teaches them how to write a book review by developing their analytical skills as they evaluate the content, themes, and writing style .

Secondly, it enhances their ability to express opinions and provide constructive criticism. Additionally, book review assignments expose students to various publications and genres, broadening their knowledge.

Furthermore, these tasks foster essential skills for academic success, like critical thinking and the ability to synthesize information. By now, we’re sure you want to learn how to write a book review, so let’s look at the book review template first.

Table of Contents

Book Review Template

How to write a book review- a step by step guide.

Check out these 5 straightforward steps for composing the best book review.

Step 1: Planning Your Book Review – The Art of Getting Started

You’ve decided to take the plunge and share your thoughts on a book that has captivated (or perhaps disappointed) you. Before you start book reviewing, let’s take a step back and plan your approach. Since knowing how to write a book review that’s both informative and engaging is an art in itself.

Choosing Your Literature

First things first, pick the book you want to review. This might seem like a no-brainer, but selecting a book that genuinely interests you will make the review process more enjoyable and your insights more authentic.

Crafting the Master Plan

Next, create an  outline  that covers all the essential points you want to discuss in your review. This will serve as the roadmap for your writing journey.

The Devil is in the Details

As you read, note any information that stands out, whether it overwhelms, underwhelms, or simply intrigues you. Pay attention to:

• The characters and their development
• The plot and its intricacies
• Any themes, symbols, or motifs you find noteworthy

Remember to reserve a body paragraph for each point you want to discuss.

The Key Questions to Ponder

When planning your book review, consider the following questions:

• What’s the plot (if any)? Understanding the driving force behind the book will help you craft a more effective review.
• Is the plot interesting? Did the book hold your attention and keep you turning the pages?
• Are the writing techniques effective? Does the author’s style captivate you, making you want to read (or reread) the text?
• Are the characters or the information believable? Do the characters/plot/information feel real, and can you relate to them?
• Would you recommend the book to anyone? Consider if the book is worthy of being recommended, whether to impress someone or to support a point in a literature class.
• What could improve? Always keep an eye out for areas that could be improved. Providing constructive criticism can enhance the quality of literature.

Step 2 – Crafting the Perfect Introduction to Write a Book Review

In this second step of “how to write a book review,” we’re focusing on the art of creating a powerful opening that will hook your audience and set the stage for your analysis.

Identify Your Book and Author

Begin by mentioning the book you’ve chosen, including its  title  and the author’s name. This informs your readers and establishes the subject of your review.

Ponder the Title

Next, discuss the mental images or emotions the book’s title evokes in your mind . This helps your readers understand your initial feelings and expectations before diving into the book.

Judge the Book by Its Cover (Just a Little)

Take a moment to talk about the book’s cover. Did it intrigue you? Did it hint at what to expect from the story or the author’s writing style? Sharing your thoughts on the cover can offer a unique perspective on how the book presents itself to potential readers.

Present Your Thesis

Now it’s time to introduce your thesis. This statement should be a concise and insightful summary of your opinion of the book. For example:

“Normal People” by Sally Rooney is a captivating portrayal of the complexities of human relationships, exploring themes of love, class, and self-discovery with exceptional depth and authenticity.

Ensure that your thesis is relevant to the points or quotes you plan to discuss throughout your review.

Incorporating these elements into your introduction will create a strong foundation for your book review. Your readers will be eager to learn more about your thoughts and insights on the book, setting the stage for a compelling and thought-provoking analysis.

How to Write a Book Review: Step 3 – Building Brilliant Body Paragraphs

You’ve planned your review and written an attention-grabbing introduction. Now it’s time for the main event: crafting the body paragraphs of your book review. In this step of “how to write a book review,” we’ll explore the art of constructing engaging and insightful body paragraphs that will keep your readers hooked.

Summarize Without Spoilers

Begin by summarizing a specific section of the book, not revealing any major plot twists or spoilers. Your goal is to give your readers a taste of the story without ruining surprises.

Support Your Viewpoint with Quotes

Next, choose three quotes from the book that support your viewpoint or opinion. These quotes should be relevant to the section you’re summarizing and help illustrate your thoughts on the book.

Analyze the Quotes

Write a summary of each quote in your own words, explaining how it made you feel or what it led you to think about the book or the author’s writing. This analysis should provide insight into your perspective and demonstrate your understanding of the text.

Structure Your Body Paragraphs

Dedicate one body paragraph to each quote, ensuring your writing is well-connected, coherent, and easy to understand.

For example:

• In  Jane Eyre , Charlotte Brontë writes, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.” This powerful statement highlights Jane’s fierce independence and refusal to be trapped by societal expectations.
• In  Normal People , Sally Rooney explores the complexities of love and friendship when she writes, “It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys.” This quote reveals the author’s astute observations on the role of culture and class in shaping personal relationships.
• In  Wuthering Heights , Emily Brontë captures the tumultuous nature of love with the quote, “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” This poignant line emphasizes the deep, unbreakable bond between the story’s central characters.

By following these guidelines, you’ll create body paragraphs that are both captivating and insightful, enhancing your book review and providing your readers with a deeper understanding of the literary work. 

How to Write a Book Review: Step 4 – Crafting a Captivating Conclusion

You’ve navigated through planning, introductions, and body paragraphs with finesse. Now it’s time to wrap up your book review with a  conclusion that leaves a lasting impression . In this final step of “how to write a book review,” we’ll explore the art of writing a memorable and persuasive conclusion.

Summarize Your Analysis

Begin by summarizing the key points you’ve presented in the body paragraphs. This helps to remind your readers of the insights and arguments you’ve shared throughout your review.

Offer Your Final Conclusion

Next, provide a conclusion that reflects your overall feelings about the book. This is your chance to leave a lasting impression and persuade your readers to consider your perspective.

Address the Book’s Appeal

Now, answer the question: Is this book worth reading? Be clear about who would enjoy the book and who might not. Discuss the taste preferences and circumstances that make the book more appealing to some readers than others.

For example:  The Alchemist is a book that can enchant a young teen, but those who are already well-versed in classic literature might find it less engaging.

Be Subtle and Balanced

Avoid simply stating whether you “liked” or “disliked” the book. Instead, use nuanced language to convey your message. Highlight the pros and cons of reading the type of literature you’ve reviewed, offering a balanced perspective.

Bringing It All Together

By following these guidelines, you’ll craft a conclusion that leaves your readers with a clear understanding of your thoughts and opinions on the book. Your review will be a valuable resource for those considering whether to pick up the book, and your witty and insightful analysis will make your review a pleasure to read. So conquer the world of book reviews, one captivating conclusion at a time!

How to Write a Book Review: Step 5 – Rating the Book (Optional)

You’ve masterfully crafted your book review, from the introduction to the conclusion. But wait, there’s one more step you might consider before calling it a day: rating the book. In this optional step of “how to write a book review,” we’ll explore the benefits and methods of assigning a rating to the book you’ve reviewed.

Why Rate the Book?

Sometimes, when writing a professional book review, it may not be appropriate to state whether you liked or disliked the book. In such cases, assigning a rating can be an effective way to get your message across without explicitly sharing your personal opinion.

How to Rate the Book

There are various rating systems you can use to evaluate the book, such as:

• A star rating (e.g., 1 to 5 stars)
• A numerical score (e.g., 1 to 10)
• A letter grade (e.g., A+ to F)

Choose a rating system that best suits your style and the format of your review. Be consistent in your rating criteria, considering writing quality, character development, plot, and overall enjoyment.

Tips for Rating the Book

Here are some tips for rating the book effectively:

• Be honest: Your rating should reflect your true feelings about the book. Don’t inflate or deflate your rating based on external factors, such as the book’s popularity or the author’s reputation.
• Be fair:Consider the book’s merits and shortcomings when rating. Even if you didn’t enjoy the book, recognize its strengths and acknowledge them in your rating.
• Be clear: Explain the rationale behind your rating so your readers understand the factors that influenced your evaluation.

Wrapping Up

By including a rating in your book review, you provide your readers with an additional insight into your thoughts on the book. While this step is optional, it can be a valuable tool for conveying your message subtly yet effectively. So, rate those books confidently, adding a touch of wit and wisdom to your book reviews.

Additional Tips on How to Write a Book Review: A Guide

In this segment, we’ll explore additional tips on how to write a book review. Get ready to captivate your readers and make your review a memorable one!

Hook ’em with an Intriguing Introduction

Keep your introduction precise and to the point. Readers have the attention span of a goldfish these days, so don’t let them swim away in boredom. Start with a bang and keep them hooked!

Embrace the World of Fiction

When learning how to write a book review, remember that reviewing fiction is often more engaging and effective. If your professor hasn’t assigned you a specific book, dive into the realm of fiction and select a novel that piques your interest.

Opinionated with Gusto

Don’t shy away from adding your own opinion to your review. A good book review always features the writer’s viewpoint and constructive criticism. After all, your readers want to know what  you  think!

Express Your Love (or Lack Thereof)

If you adored the book, let your readers know! Use phrases like “I’ll definitely return to this book again” to convey your enthusiasm. Conversely, be honest but respectful even if the book wasn’t your cup of tea.

Templates and Examples and Expert Help: Your Trusty Sidekicks

Feeling lost? You can always get help from formats, book review examples or online  college paper writing service  platforms. These trusty sidekicks will help you navigate the world of book reviews with ease. 

Be a Champion for New Writers and Literature

Remember to uplift new writers and pieces of literature. If you want to suggest improvements, do so kindly and constructively. There’s no need to be mean about anyone’s books – we’re all in this literary adventure together!

Criticize with Clarity, Not Cruelty

When adding criticism to your review, be clear but not mean. Remember, there’s a fine line between constructive criticism and cruelty. Tread lightly and keep your reader’s feelings in mind.

Avoid the Comparison Trap

Resist the urge to compare one writer’s book with another. Every book holds its worth, and comparing them will only confuse your reader. Stick to discussing the book at hand, and let it shine in its own light.

Top 7 Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Writing a book review can be a delightful and rewarding experience, especially when you balance analysis, wit, and personal insights. However, some common mistakes can kill the brilliance of your review. 

In this section of “how to write a book review,” we’ll explore the top 7 blunders writers commit and how to steer clear of them, with a dash of  modernist literature  examples and tips for students writing book reviews as assignments.

Succumbing to the Lure of Plot Summaries

Mistake: Diving headfirst into a plot summary instead of dissecting the book’s themes, characters, and writing style.

Example: “The Bell Jar chronicles the life of a young woman who experiences a mental breakdown.”

How to Avoid: Delve into the book’s deeper aspects, such as its portrayal of mental health, societal expectations, and the author’s distinctive narrative voice. Offer thoughtful insights and reflections, making your review a treasure trove of analysis.

Unleashing the Spoiler Kraken

Mistake: Spilling major plot twists or the ending without providing a spoiler warning, effectively ruining the reading experience for potential readers.

Example: “In Metamorphosis, the protagonist’s transformation into a monstrous insect leads to…”

How to Avoid: Tread carefully when discussing significant plot developments, and consider using spoiler warnings. Focus on the impact of these plot points on the overall narrative, character growth, or thematic resonance.

Riding the Personal Bias Express

Mistake: Allowing personal bias to hijack the review without providing sufficient evidence or reasoning to support opinions.

Example: “I detest books about existential crises, so The Sun Also Rises was a snoozefest.”

How to Avoid: While personal opinions are valid, it’s crucial to back them up with specific examples from the book. Discuss aspects like writing style, character development, or pacing to support your evaluation and provide a more balanced perspective.

Wielding the Vague Language Saber

Mistake: Resorting to generic, vague language that fails to capture the nuances of the book and can come across as clichéd.

Example: “This book was mind-blowing. It’s a must-read for everyone.”

How to Avoid: Use precise and descriptive language to express your thoughts. Employ specific examples and quotations to highlight memorable scenes, the author’s unique writing style, or the impact of the book’s themes on readers.

Ignoring the Contextualization Compass

Mistake: Neglecting to provide context about the author, genre, or cultural relevance of the book, leaving readers without a proper frame of reference.

Example: “This book is dull and unoriginal.”

How to Avoid: Offer readers a broader understanding by discussing the author’s background, the genre conventions the book adheres to or subverts, and any societal or historical contexts that inform the narrative. This helps readers appreciate the book’s uniqueness and relevance.

Overindulging in Personal Preferences

Mistake: Letting personal preferences overshadow an objective assessment of the book’s merits.

Example: “I don’t like stream-of-consciousness writing, so this book is automatically bad.”

How to Avoid: Acknowledge personal preferences but strive to evaluate the book objectively. Focus on the book’s strengths and weaknesses, considering how well it achieves its goals within its genre or intended audience.

Forgetting the Target Audience Telescope

Mistake: Failing to mention the book’s target audience or who might enjoy it, leading to confusion for potential readers.

Example: “This book is great for everyone.”

How to Avoid: Contemplate the book’s intended audience, genre, and themes. Mention who might particularly enjoy the book based on these factors, whether it’s fans of a specific genre, readers interested in character-driven stories, or those seeking thought-provoking narratives.

By dodging these common pitfalls, writers can craft insightful, balanced, and engaging book reviews that help readers make informed decisions about their reading choices.

These tips are particularly beneficial for students writing book reviews as assignments, as they ensure a well-rounded and thoughtful analysis.!

Many students requested us to cover how to write a book review. This thorough guide is sure to help you. At Paperperk, professionals are dedicated to helping students find their balance. We understand the importance of good grades, so we offer the finest writing service , ensuring students stay ahead of the curve. So seek expert help because only Paperperk is your perfect solution!

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25+ Book Review Templates and Ideas to Organize Your Thoughts

Danika Ellis

Danika spends most of her time talking about queer women books at the Lesbrary. Blog: The Lesbrary Twitter: @DanikaEllis

View All posts by Danika Ellis

When I was a kid I loved reading, but I hated book reports. It felt impossible to boil a book down to a few lines or even a page of writing. Besides, by the time I had to write the report, I had already forgotten a lot. It never ceases to be painful to try to pull my thoughts and opinions out of my head and put them on the page, especially in a coherent way.

As an adult, I continue to usually find writing book reviews painful . And yet, I maintain a book blog with reviews of all the (bi and lesbian) books I read. Why? For one thing, I want to raise the visibility of these books — or, in the case of a book I loathed, warn other readers of what to expect. It helps me to build community with other book lovers. It’s also a great way to force myself pay attention to how I’m feeling while I’m reading a book and what my thoughts are afterwards. I have learned to take notes as I go, so I have something to refer to by the time I write a review, and it has me notice what a book is doing well (and what it isn’t). The review at the end helps me to organize my thoughts. I also find that I remember more once I’ve written a review.

Once you’ve decided it’s worthwhile to write a review, though, how do you get started? It can be a daunting task. The good news is, book reviews can adapt to whatever you want them to be. A book review can be a tweet with a thumbs up or thumbs down emoji, maybe with a sentence or two of your thoughts; it can also be an in-depth essay on the themes of the book and its influence on literature. Most are going to fall somewhere between those two! Let go of the idea of trying to create the One True Book Review. Everyone is looking for something different, and there is space for GIF-filled squee fests about a book and thoughtful, meditative explorations of a work.

This post offers a variety of book reviews elements that you can mix and match to create a book review template that works for you. Before you get started, though, there are some questions worth addressing.

Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Book Review Template

Where will you be posting your book reviews.

An Instagram book review will likely look different from a blog book review. Consider which platform you will be using for your book review. You can adapt it for different platforms, or link to your original review, but it’s a good starting point. Instagram reviews tend to be a lot shorter than blog reviews, for instance.

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Will you be using the same template every time?

Some book reviewers have a go-to book review template. Others have a different one for each genre, while another group doesn’t use a template at all and just reacts to whatever each book brings up.

Heading or no headings?

When choosing which book review elements to mix and match, you can also decide whether to include a header for each section (like Plot, Characterization, Writing, etc). Headers make reviews easier to browse, but they may not have the professional, essay-style look that you’re going for.

Why are you writing a review?

When selecting which elements to include in your review, consider what the purpose is. Do you want to better remember the plot by writing about it? You probably want to include a plot summary, then. Do you want to help readers decide whether they should read this book? A pros and cons list might be helpful. Are you trying to track something about your reading, like an attempt to read more books in translation or more books by authors of color? Are you trying to buy fewer books and read off your TBR shelf instead? These are all things you can note in a review, usually in a point-form basic information block at the beginning.

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Book Review Templates and Formats

Essay-style.

This is a multi-paragraph review, usually with no headers. It’s the same format most newspapers and academics use for book reviews. Many essay-style reviews use informal categories in their writing, often discussing setting, writing, characters, and plot in their own paragraphs. They usually also discuss the big themes/messages of a story. Here are some questions to consider when writing an essay-style review:

What is the author trying to do? Don’t evaluate a romance novel based on a mystery novel’s criteria. First try to think about what the book was attempting to do, then try to evaluate if they achieved it. You can still note if you didn’t like it, but it’s good to know what it was aiming for first.

What are some of the themes of the story? What big message should the reader take away? Did you agree with what the book seemed to be saying? Why or why not?

How is this story relevant to the world? What is it saying about the time it was written in? About human nature? About society or current issues? Depending on the book, there may be more or less to dig into here.

What did this book make you think about? It may be that the themes in the book were just a launching off point. How did they inspire your own thinking? How did this book change you?

A Classic Book Review

This is probably the most common kind of book review template. It uses a few criteria, usually including Setting, Writing, Characters, and Plot (for a novel). The review then goes into some detail about each element, describing what the book did well, and where it fell short.

The advantage of this format is that it’s very straightforward and applies to almost any fiction read. It can also be adapted–you will likely have more to say about the plot in a mystery/thriller than a character study of a novel. A drawback, though, is that it can feel limiting. You might have thoughts that don’t neatly fit into these categories, or you could feel like you don’t have enough to say about some of the categories.

Pros and Cons

A common format for a Goodreads review is some variation of pros and cons. This might be “What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like” or “Reasons to Bump This Up Your TBR/Reasons to Bump This Down On Your TBR.” This is a very flexible system that can accommodate anything from a few bullet points each to paragraphs each. It gives a good at-a-glance impression of your thoughts (more cons than pros is a pretty good indication you didn’t like it). It also is broad enough that almost all your thoughts can likely be organized into those headings.

This is also a format that is easily mix and matched with the elements listed below. A brief review might give the title, author, genre, some brief selling points of the novel, and then a pros and cons list. Some reviews also include a “verdict” at the end. An example of this format:

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

🌟 Fantasy All-Ages Comic 💫 Adorable pet dragons ✨ A diverse cast

Pros: This book has beautiful artwork. It is a soothing read, and all the character are supportive of each other. This is a story about friendship and kindness.

Cons: Don’t expect a fast-moving plot or a lot of conflict. This is a very gentle read.

Another approach to the review is not, strictly speaking, a book review template at all. Instead, it’s something like “5 Reasons to Read TITLE by Author” or “The # Most Shocking Plot Twists in X Series.” An advantage of this format is that it can be very to-the-point: if you want to convince people to read a book, it makes sense to just write a list of reasons they should read the book. It may also be more likely to get clicked on–traditional book reviews often get less views than more general posts.

On the other hand, listicles can come off as gimmicky or click-bait. You’ll have to decide for yourself if the book matches this format, and whether you are writing this out of genuine enthusiasm or are just trying to bend a review to be more clickable.

Your Own Original Rating System

Lots of reviewers decide to make their own review format based on what matters to them. This is often accompanied by a ratings system. For instance, the BookTube channel Book Roast uses the CAWPILE system:

CAWPILE is an acronym for the criteria she rates: Characters, Atmosphere, Writing, Plot, Intrigue, Logic, Enjoyment. Each of those are rated 1–10, and the average given is the overall rating. By making your own ratings/review system, you can prioritize what matters to you.

My favorite rating system is Njeri’s from Onyx Pages , because it shows exactly what she’s looking for from books, and it helps her to think about and speak about the things she values:

A “Live Tweet” or Chronological Review

Another format possibility is live tweeting (or updating as you go on Goodreads, or whatever your platform of choice is). This has you document your initial thoughts as you read, and it’s usually informal and often silly. You can add what you’re loving, what you’re hating, and what questions you have as you go.

This is a fun format for when you’re reading a popular book for the first time. That way, other people can cackle at how unprepared you are as you read it. This requires you to remember to always have your phone on you as you read, to get your authentic thoughts as they happen, but it saves on having to write a more in-depth review. Alternately, some people include both a “first impressions” section and a more in-depth analysis section in their final review.

Get Creative

There are plenty of book review templates to choose from and elements to mix-and-match, but you can also respond in a completely original way. You could create a work of art in response to the book! Here are some options:

• Writing a song , a short story, or a poem
• Writing a letter to the author or the main character (you don’t have to send it to the author!)
• Writing an “interview” of a character from the book, talk show style
• Making a visual response, like a collage or painting
• Making a book diorama, like your elementary school days!

Mix-and-Match Elements of a Book Review

Most book reviews are made up of a few different parts, which can be combined in lots of different ways. Here is a selection to choose from! These might also give you ideas for your own elements. Don’t take on too much, though! It can easily become an overwhelming amount of information for readers.

Information

Usually a book review starts with some basic information about the book. What you consider basic information, though, is up for interpretation! Consider what you and your audience will think is important. Here are some ideas:

• The title and author (pretty important)
• The book’s cover
• Format (audiobook, comic, poetry, etc)
• Genre (this can be broad, like SFF, or narrow, like Silkpunk or Dark Academia)
• Content warnings
• Source (where did you get the book? Was is borrowed from the library, bought, or were you sent an ARC?)
• Synopsis/plot summary (your own or the publisher’s)
• What kind of representation there is in the novel (including race, disability, LGBTQ characters, etc)
• Anything you’re tracking in your reading, including: authors of color, authors’ country, if a book is in translation, etc

Review Elements

Once you’ve established your basic information, you’re into the review itself! Some of these are small additions to a review, while others are a little more time-intensive.

Bullet point elements:

• Rating (star rating, thumbs up/down, recommend/wouldn’t recommend, or your own scale)
• Who would like it/Who wouldn’t like it
• Read-alikes (or movies and TV shows like the book)
• Describe the book using an emoji or emojis
• Describe the book using a gif or gifs
• Favorite line(s) from the book
• New vocabulary/the most beautiful words in the novel
• How it made you feel (in a sentence or two)
• One word or one sentence review
• Bullet points listing the selling points of a book
• BooksandLala’s Scary, Unsettling, and Intrigue ratings, for horror
• World-building, for fantasy and science fiction titles
• Art, for comics
• Narration, for audiobooks
• Romance, for…romance
• Heat level, for erotica

Visual elements:

• Design a graphic (usually incorporating the cover, your star rating, and some other basic info)
• Take a selfie of yourself holding the book, with your expression as the review
• Make a mood board
• Design your own book cover
• Make fan art

Elements to incorporate into a review:

• Quick/initial thoughts (often while reading or immediately after reading), then a more in-depth review (common on Goodreads)
• A list of facts about the book or a character from the book
• Book club questions about the book
• Spoiler/non-spoiler sections
• Research: look up interviews with the author and critique of the book, incorporate it (cited!) into your review
• Links to other resources, such as interviews or other reviews — especially #OwnVoices reviews
• A story of your own, whether it’s your experience reading the book, or something it reminded you of

This is not a complete list! There are so many ways to write a book review, and it should reflect your own relationship with books, as well as your audience. If you’re looking for more ways to keep track of your reading, you’ll also like 50+ Beautiful Bujo Spread Ideas to Track Your Reading .

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Writing a Book Review

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Book reviews typically evaluate recently-written works. They offer a brief description of the text’s key points and often provide a short appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

Readers sometimes confuse book reviews with book reports, but the two are not identical. Book reports commonly describe what happens in a work; their focus is primarily on giving an account of the major plot, characters, and/or main idea of the work. Most often, book reports are a K-12 assignment and range from 250 to 500 words. If you are looking to write a book report, please see the OWL resource, Writing a Book Report.

By contrast, book reviews are most often a college assignment, but they also appear in many professional works: magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. They typically range from 500-750 words, but may be longer or shorter. A book review gives readers a sneak peek at what a book is like, whether or not the reviewer enjoyed it, and details on purchasing the book.

Before You Read

Before you begin to read, consider the elements you will need to included in your review. The following items may help:

• Author: Who is the author? What else has s/he written? Has this author won any awards? What is the author’s typical style?
• Genre: What type of book is this: fiction, nonfiction, romance, poetry, youth fiction, etc.? Who is the intended audience for this work? What is the purpose of the work?
• Title: Where does the title fit in? How is it applied in the work? Does it adequately encapsulate the message of the text? Is it interesting? Uninteresting?
• Preface/Introduction/Table of Contents: Does the author provide any revealing information about the text in the preface/introduction? Does a “guest author” provide the introduction? What judgments or preconceptions do the author and/or “guest author” provide? How is the book arranged: sections, chapters?
• Book Jacket/Cover/Printing: Book jackets are like mini-reviews. Does the book jacket provide any interesting details or spark your interest in some way? Are there pictures, maps, or graphs? Do the binding, page cut, or typescript contribute or take away from the work?

As You Read

As you read, determine how you will structure the summary portion or background structure of your review. Be ready to take notes on the book’s key points, characters, and/or themes.

• Characters: Are there characters in the work? Who are the principal characters? How do they affect the story? Do you empathize with them?
• Themes/Motifs/Style: What themes or motifs stand out? How do they contribute to the work? Are they effective or not? How would you describe this author’s particular style? Is it accessible to all readers or just some?
• Argument: How is the work’s argument set up? What support does the author give for her/findings? Does the work fulfill its purpose/support its argument?
• Key Ideas: What is the main idea of the work? What makes it good, different, or groundbreaking?
• Quotes: What quotes stand out? How can you demonstrate the author’s talent or the feel of the book through a quote?

When You Are Ready to Write

Begin with a short summary or background of the work, but do not give too much away. Many reviews limit themselves only to the first couple of chapters or lead the reader up to the rising action of the work. Reviewers of nonfiction texts will provide the basic idea of the book’s argument without too much detailed.

The final portion of your review will detail your opinion of the work. When you are ready to begin your review, consider the following:

• Establish a Background, Remember your Audience: Remember that your audience has not read the work; with this in mind, be sure to introduce characters and principles carefully and deliberately. What kind of summary can you provide of the main points or main characters that will help your readers gauge their interest? Does the author’s text adequately reach the intended audience? Will some readers be lost or find the text too easy?
• Minor principles/characters: Deal only with the most pressing issues in the book. You will not be able to cover every character or idea. What principles/characters did you agree or disagree with? What other things might the author have researched or considered?
• Organize: The purpose of the review is to critically evaluate the text, not just inform the readers about it. Leave plenty room for your evaluation by ensuring that your summary is brief. Determine what kind of balance to strike between your summary information and your evaluation. If you are writing your review for a class, ask your instructor. Often the ratio is half and half.
• Your Evaluation: Choose one or a few points to discuss about the book. What worked well for you? How does this work compare with others by the same author or other books in the same genre? What major themes, motifs, or terms does the book introduce, and how effective are they? Did the book appeal to you on an emotional or logical way?
• Publisher/Price: Most book reviews include the publisher and price of the book at the end of the article. Some reviews also include the year published and ISBN.

When making the final touches to your review, carefully verify the following:

• Double-check the spelling of the author name(s), character names, special terms, and publisher.
• Try to read from the vantage point of your audience. Is there too much/enough summary? Does your argument about the text make sense?
• Should you include direct quotes from the reading? Do they help support your arguments? Double-check your quotes for accuracy.

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The Plucky Irish Heroine of ‘Brooklyn’ Is Back — and in Crisis

Now a suburban married mother, Eilis Lacey finds herself in a quandary in “Long Island,” Colm Tóibín’s sequel to his much-admired novel.

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By A.O. Scott

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LONG ISLAND, by Colm Tóibín

In the early 1950s, Eilis Lacey, a fictional character, said goodbye to Enniscorthy, the real town in County Wexford, Ireland, where her creator, the novelist Colm Tóibín, would be born a few years later. She crossed the Atlantic, making her way to Brooklyn and into “ Brooklyn ,” Tóibín’s near-perfect 2009 novel about her emigration.

Eilis was often lonely, but she was hardly alone. In the 1950s, Ireland lost more than 15 percent of its population to emigration; 50,000 of those who left made their way to America. But Eilis wasn’t a statistic or a symbol: She was a soul — a witty, observant, sometimes anxious young woman finding her way and her place in the world. (Both her caution and her boldness were superbly captured by Saoirse Ronan in John Crowley’s film adaptation .)

Where would Eilis go from Brooklyn? The obvious answer, supplied in the title of Tóibín’s new novel, “Long Island,” was foreshadowed in the earlier book. On one of their dates, Tony Fiorello, a Bensonhurst plumber and Eilis’s eventual husband, tells her about his plan to start a construction business with his brothers out on the island, with a cluster of houses where the whole extended Fiorello family will live.

As “Long Island” gets underway, that plan has long since come to pass. It’s the mid-1970s, and Eilis has taken part in another large-scale demographic movement, the exodus from the cities to the suburbs. She lives with Tony and their two teenage children near a bevy of in-laws.

The voyage to America, encouraged by her older sister, Rose, and enabled by a helpful priest, wasn’t entirely Eilis’s idea. Neither was the relocation to Long Island — that was Tony’s dream. But Eilis is hardly passive. She is an interesting and vivid character because she manages to make her destiny her choice. She may be constrained, in Lindenhurst as in Enniscorthy, by social norms and family expectations, but in her own mind, and in the eyes of sympathetic readers, she is free.

In the opening pages of “Long Island,” fate deals her a wild card. Or rather, Tony does. A stranger shows up at Eilis’s door to inform her that his wife is pregnant and that Tony, who had done some repairs for the family, is the father.

“If anyone thinks I am keeping an Italian plumber’s brat in my house and have my own children believe that it came into the world as decently as they did, they can have another think,” he tells her. Because he is Irish, Eilis takes him at his word. And perhaps because she is Irish, she is equally adamant. “The baby will not pass the threshold,” she tells her mother-in-law, who clearly has something else in mind.

Tony’s transgression, and his family’s response to it, underscores Eilis’s alienation from the large Italian American family she has married into. With her marriage in limbo, she decides to return to Enniscorthy for the first time in more than 20 years. Her children, Larry and Rosella — who have had “no real interest in Enniscorthy, or even Ireland” — will join her for part of the summer.

Readers of “Brooklyn” will recall that Eilis’s previous trip home came in the wake of Rose’s death. If you’re just joining her, Tóibín offers a succinct recap of that visit:

That summer, in Enniscorthy, Eilis had a romance with Jim Farrell. No one … knew that she was, by that time, married to Tony. They had got married in Brooklyn. Eilis had wanted to tell her mother as soon as she arrived home, but it was too hard because it meant that, no matter what, she would have to go back to America. So she told no one, no one at all. And then, at summer’s end, she had abruptly left, just as Jim was making it clear that he wanted to marry her.

This loose end turns into the warp and woof of “Long Island.” Jim, who never married and never got over Eilis, manages a pub he inherited from his parents. He has been carrying on a discreet affair with Nancy, who had been Eilis’s best friend and who is now a widow running a chip shop in town. Jim and Nancy take pains to avoid the inquisitive eyes and judgmental tongues of their neighbors, but once Eilis shows up no secrets are safe.

Eilis herself, with her rented car and her Americanized attitudes, attracts envious, curious, suspicious scrutiny, including from her own mother. Meanwhile, her renewed connection with Jim and Nancy, coming on the heels of her marital crisis back home, sends her and the novel into a swirl of complicated feelings and difficult choices.

“Long Island” is both a sequel to “Brooklyn” and a companion to “ Nora Webster ,” Tóibín’s 2014 novel — his masterpiece, in my opinion — about another Enniscorthy woman’s struggle for autonomy. Eilis’s mother makes an appearance in that novel, which is set in the late 1960s and early ’70s. While events in the wider world are mentioned in all three books — the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the war in Vietnam — these are not historical novels in the usual sense. Tóibín’s interest is in the finer grain of individual perception.

He brings us close enough to Eilis, and to Nora, to see what and how they think, but not so close as to invade their privacy or compromise their dignity. In an autobiographical essay, Tóibín applied James Merrill’s description of Elizabeth Bishop to his own mother, who gave “a lifelong impersonation of an ordinary woman.” Nora and Eilis are drawn in similar terms, their ordinary experiences of migration, marriage and motherhood filtered through an intense and meticulously observed inner life. What holds the reader’s eye, in “Brooklyn” and “Nora Webster,” are not the external movements of a plot but the intimacy and accuracy of the portrait.

“Long Island” is a busier book than its predecessors, more exciting in some ways but in others less satisfying. There is more plot — more incidents and coincidences, more twists and revelations — and less Eilis. Her point of view alternates with Jim’s and Nancy’s, which heightens the drama but also feels like something of a betrayal. Like the busybodies of Enniscorthy, we are preoccupied with what Eilis will do next — no spoilers here — and less attentive to who she is. This exquisitely drawn, idiosyncratic soul turns out to be just another character in a novel after all.

LONG ISLAND | By Colm Tóibín | Scribner | 294 pp. | $28

A.O. Scott is a critic at large for The Times’s Book Review, writing about literature and ideas. He joined The Times in 2000 and was a film critic until early 2023. More about A.O. Scott

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The only book review templates you'll ever need.

Whether you’re trying to become a book reviewer , writing a book report for school, or analyzing a book, it’s nice to follow a book review template to make sure that your thoughts are clearly presented. 

A quality template provides guidance to keep your mind sharp and your thoughts organized so that you can write the best book review possible. On Reedsy Discovery , we read and share a lot of book reviews, which helps us develop quite a clear idea what makes up a good one. With that in mind, we’ve put together some trustworthy book review templates that you can download, along with a quick run-through of all the parts that make up an outstanding review — all in this post! 

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

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Book review templates for every type of review

With the rapid growth of the book community on Instagram, Youtube, and even TikTok, the world of book commentary has evolved far beyond your classic review. There are now many ways you can structure a book review. Some popular formats include:

• Book reports — often done for school assignments; 
• Commentary articles — think in-depth reviews in magazines and newspapers; 
• Book blog reviews — short personal essays about the book; and
• Instagram reviews — one or two-paragraph reviews captioned under a nice photo. 

But while the text in all these review styles can be organized in different ways, there are certain boxes that all good book reviews tick. So, instead of giving you various templates to use for different occasions, we’ve condensed it down to just two book review templates (one for fiction and one for nonfiction) that can guide your thoughts and help you nail just about any review. 

⭐ Download our free fiction book review template  

⭐ Download our free nonfiction book review template  

All you need to do is answer the questions in the template regarding the book you’re reading and you’ve got the content of your review covered. Once that’s done, you can easily put this content into its appropriate format. 

Now, if you’re curious about what constitutes a good book review template, we’ll explain it in the following section! 

Elements of a book review template

Say you want to build your own book review template, or you want to customize our templates — here are the elements you’ll want to consider. 

We’ve divided our breakdown of the elements into two categories: the essentials and the fun additions that’ll add some color to your book reviews.

What are the three main parts of a book review?

We covered this in detail (with the help of some stellar examples) in our post on how to write a book review , but basically, these are the three crucial elements you should know: 

The summary covers the premise of the book and its main theme, so readers are able to understand what you’re referring to in the rest of your review. This means that, if a person hasn’t read the book, they can go through the summary to get a quick idea of what it’s about. (As such, there should be no spoilers!) 

The analysis is where, if it’s a fiction book, you talk more about the book, its plot, theme, and characters. If it’s nonfiction, you have to consider whether the book effectively achieves what it set out to do. 

The recommendation is where your personal opinion comes in the strongest, and you give a verdict as to who you think might enjoy this book. 

You can choose to be brief or detailed, depending on the kind of review you’re writing, but you should always aim to cover these three points. If you’re needing some inspiration, check out these 17 book review examples as seen in magazines, blogs, and review communities like Reedsy Discovery for a little variation. 

Which review community should you join?

Find out which review community is best for your style. Takes 30 seconds!

Which additional details can you include?

Once you’ve nailed down the basics, you can jazz things up a little and add some personal flavor to your book review by considering some of these elements:

• A star-rating (the default is five stars but you can create your own scales); 
• A bullet-point pros and cons list; 
• Your favorite quotation from the book; 
• Commentary on the format you read (i.e., ebook, print, or audiobook);
• Fun facts about the book or author; 
• Other titles you think are similar.

This is where you can really be creative and tailor your review to suit your purpose and audience. A formal review written for a magazine, for instance, will likely benefit from contextual information about the author and the book, along with some comment on how that might have affected the reading (or even writing) process.

Meanwhile, if you’re reviewing a book on social media, you might find bullet points more effective at capturing the fleeting attention of Internet users. You can also make videos, take creative pictures, or even add your own illustrations for more personal touches. The floor is yours at this point, so go ahead and take the spotlight! 

That said, we hope that our templates can provide you with a strong foundation for even your most adventurous reviews. And if you’re interested in writing editorial reviews for up-and-coming indie titles, register as a reviewer on Reedsy Discovery !

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2024 Great Quotes From Great Leaders Boxed Calendar: 365 Inspirational Quotes From Leaders Who Shaped the World (Daily Calendar, Office Desk Gift for Him or Her) Calendar – Day to Day Calendar, August 1, 2023

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• Print length 320 pages
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• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728268052
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