The Constant Reader

8th February, 2019

Review: Book Love by Debbie Tung (Andrews McMeel publishing)

This book! Let me just say: If you are a bookworm, you will want to have this little gem in your library! Tung's wonderful cartoons capture perfectly what it feels like to be bookish in a world where staring at your mobile phone's screen at a social event is not considered rude while picking up a book mysteriously is. (And no, I still haven't figured out this weird social paradox of our digital age.) 

Debbie Tung is an English illustrator and cartoonist who shares her love of books in this amazing collection of cartoons. She perfectly depicts the everyday problems of any book lover: the struggle to be reasonable and rather spend your money on food instead of books when you're broke, the moments when you only want to stay home and read your book but have to leave the house anyways, the instances when people simply don't 'get you' and your slightly weird but cute infatuation with literature. 

Tung's cartoons are wonderfully quirky and so very relatable. My husband, who snatched the book from me the minute I opened the package, just had a quick browse throught the first few pages and declared that every single cartoon was basically about my life. Hahaha! So yeah, this book is essentially about me or about any other bookworm in the universe. If you are obsessed with books, if you secretly sniff them because they smell sooooo good when new, if you hug the ones you hold dear - this is the perfect collection to while away an hour or two... and to become totally engrossed in Tung's wonderful art. 

Book Love is not a novel. It's not a story but simply snippets from a book lover's life. It's an homage to being nerdy and it would make an amazing gift for any bookworm in your life. It will make you happy and show you that your little introverted soul is not alone - there are in fact so many kindred spirits out there (sorry, I just felt I had to quote Anne Shirley here) and Debbie Tung is one of them. So a big YAY for us bookish people! 

Rating: 10/5 stars (Yes, I'm cheating and giving it double points because it is so awesome.)