With the dreary winter months approaching, it’s time for an entertaining adventure. Our February selection is The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett, the story of a bookseller who finds a Victorian painting that bears a remarkable resemblance to his late wife. While attempting to track down the painting’s origins, he is propelled into a mystery with clues that date back to the time of Shakespeare.
Discussion begins February 1st. Please join us!
Nothing like skulduggery! 
See you guys in February.
Hi Everyone, this is just a reminder that discussion of The Bookman’s Tale begins February 1st. There is still plenty of time to read the novel and join us!
In probably a first for me, here it is 2+ weeks before discussion starts and I have finished the book! Woot, woot!!! Now, hopefully I will actually be in a position (i.e. someplace with internet) to participate in said discussion …
Looks like a good book!
I just turned to the first page and wondered why Hay-on-Wye, Wales sounded familiar and remembered it was on e of the world’s ten best bookstore towns in some list I saw on Facebook this week.
^ another coincidence to report.
Page three, Peter mentions reading from " an actual copy of the First Folio, that weighty 1623 volume of Shakespeare’s works in which many of his plays were printed for the first time."
Two weeks ago. I received an email ( son attended univ of Notre Dame) and a copy of the First Folio, will be on exhibit throughout the United States this year in only one location in each state. the University of Notre Dame was selected as Indiana locale.
I’m about half way through - it’s a page turner.
I started The Bookman’s Tale yesterday and find it easy to read. I see no problem finishing in time for discussion on Feb. 1. So for anyone considering picking it up, don’t hesitate to do so.
I also just started it yesterday, ignatius, after finally getting to the end of a 533-page book I wanted to finish first!
It’s February! Welcome to our discussion of The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett.
I thought the novel was a quick, fun read, but without much literary depth – which is sort of an ironic twist, considering its subject matter. I feel like I just finished watching a Made-for-TV movie, complete with the classic Evil Gloating trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilGloating
I’m poking a little fun, but I’m not criticizing, not really. There’s nothing wrong with a quick, fun read, and I don’t think Charlie Lovett was aiming any higher than what he accomplished: A romance, a mystery, and an opportunity for readers to go look up a few historical figures on Wikipedia. 
I agree. It was a quick, fun read. I was surprised at how clunky the dialog was. Ditto the sex scenes. And Amanda - too good to be true - struck by serious illness, not once, but twice! (Just noticed that his mother died very young, so his own experiences probably play in here. http://charlielovett.com/books/love-ruth-a-sons-memoir/overview/ )
I actualy think Charlie Lovett may well have been aiming higher, but he didn’t get there.
Oh and amused to see that he lists A. S. Byatt’s Possession as one of his influences. 
It was a nice little book – a bit shallow, but pleasant. I really liked the description of book restoration.
Woot, woo! I AM actually in a place with both a computer and internet so I can participate in this discussion!
I enjoyed the book for what it was – a quick read with a (small) mystery. In between more serious reads I read quite a few mysteries, many that I download for free. The Bookman’s Tale was better written than many others, but not particularly “deep.” There were times when I found the book a little hard to follow, jumping between present and past and all the various characters. (One of the downsides of reading on a Kindle where it’s difficult to flip back to a previous page.)
Agree with @mathmom – Amanda was too good to be true.
I got to the point where I didn’t even try. I thought the story was unnecessarily convoluted. I kept with it for the appealing content about book collecting and book restoration and for the sweet love story.
I too thought this was a pleasant, light read, and as NJTM has stated, the book binding and collecting aspects were interesting to me.
When I first started reading, I was very excited. I thought it was going to be an awesome story. I loved how the book looked at 3 different time periods and was very curious to see how the time periods would all tie together. When I got into the second half of the book, I felt letdown that the book was much simpler than I first thought. I liked it, but am disappointed that I didn’t love it.
^ I agree – it think the story started out with more promise. As it unfolded, there were a few too many “been there, done that” elements. For example:
I think the author would like us to believe that Peter is really being visited by Amanda, but that requires some suspension of disbelief for me. Doesn’t it seem like a lot of light fiction and TV shows use this device? Maybe I’m reading/watching the wrong stuff. (Hmmm…come to think of it, it could be time for me to raise the bar on my TV watching because–I confess–I just remembered I saw this device used on a Hallmark Channel movie with Kellie Martin.) Oh, and the “visiting spirit” plot twist was also in a book I recently read by Sarah Addison Allen. (I won’t say the title because that would be a major spoiler.)
I thought we might be supposed to think she’s a ghost until Liz shows up in the car with him when she’s miles away. (And that really startled me so much it threw me out of the story entirely.) In my copy it’s on page 208, in the chapter titled “Cornwall, Western England, Tuesday, February 21, 1995”. So now I think it’s either his over-active imagination or it’s some sort of magical realism going on.
This is the bit:
And the dialog made no sense, “I wasn’t expecting to meet you” is the equivalent of meeting up with someone who likely wants to kill you? I was seriously annoyed!