I picked up this book at McNally Robinson at the Forks when I was in between appointments and needed something to read. Since then it stayed in my purse and I would read it if I was waiting anywhere. It was really ideal for that. It's one of a number of titles published by Penguin in their Great Ideas series. I found some of the essays a little hard to read, especially the ones about his experiences at boarding school. On the whole, though, I enjoyed getting a glimpse into this author's thoughts ranging from the perils of second-hand bookshops to what patriotism really means. ( )

7 essays in this small volumne

A collection of essays, memories, and musings on such memories, by the never-boring Orwell. If you are wondering whether books or cigarettes win out, then you obviously haven't read any Orwell before. He did love a smoke, but he much preferred the joys of literature - to which he contributed much.

As always, a number of themes are dealt with - society, politics, the experience of the poor, his school days, and of course books. ( )

Only two of the seven chapters were really about books. The occasional publishing/printing error in the book made it feel as if a machine had mindlessly produced the book, randomly choosing essays from other works, and copying the text without any human editor to check the completed work. That said, Orwell's thoughts, experiences and ideas about the various happenings in his life were interesting and well conveyed. I would have preferred it if this book was a collection of his writings on just the books and bookshop experiences in his life, including some of his fictional bookshops. "...plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops...". I was fascinated by his essay The Prevention of Literature: "The mere prevalence of certain ideas can spread like poison...". "..easy for a poet to keep away from dangerous subjects...even when he does utter them, they may escape notice." Orwell's description of primitive people composing verse communally through improvisation, and his ideas of the future: newspapers being superseded by television, novels superseded by film, low-grade fiction produced by machinery, imagination eliminated from the process of writing. All this under a totalitarian state. "Imagination...will not breed in captivity." ( )

Even if you don't read the whole book. You must definitely read the essays - 'The Prevention of Literature' and 'My Country Right or Left'. ( )