How to Buy a Love of Reading (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Egan's debut, an odd blend of young adult melodrama and unsuccessful metafiction, winds itself into knots of empty story lines. Recognizing that their dullard daughter, Carley, needs an academic boost, Gretchen and Francis Wells hire author Bree McEnroy to write a book to Carley's specifications. Though Carley's love for reality television and Bree's fondness for self-conscious literary tropes should, in theory, unite to make a delightful story-within-a-story, it is often neglected or underwritten. Meanwhile, the cardboard secondary cast floats around Bree and Carley: there's Hunter, Carley's crush, whose alcoholic rakishness, we are assured, masks a poet's interior; Carley's social-climbing mother and philandering father; and Justin, Bree's college chum, who has become, on dubious merit, a literary star. Carley and Hunter's friendship is jeopardized by both his addictions and her unrequited adoration, and Bree and Justin reconcile. Plagued by thin, when not wildly inconsistent, characterization from the start, the narrative's tendency to flit from character to character without revealing anything memorable or insightful further blurs the point. Unfortunately, there isn't enough heart to redeem the dopiness. (May)
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From Booklist

Carley Wells is a high-school junior at a private school in upscale Fox Glen, where families spend an undue amount of time and money outdoing each other’s party budgets. Carley is overweight by 57 pounds (according to her personal trainer), “intellectually impoverished” (according to her English teacher), and has never read a book she liked. Worried about college applications, Carley’s parents (who never read themselves) commission a book for her—a book whose author will be ensconced in their mansion and shown off at Carley’s Sweet Sixteen party—as evidence of the Wells’ “devotion” to good literature. While Carley and “The Author” collaborate on the book, Carley continues to struggle scholastically and socially—especially with her best friend, Hunter, a senior chick magnet with whom she has a deep but platonic relationship. Hunter’s own problems have led to excessive Scotch binges and a Vicodin addiction, unbeknownst to his clueless and apparently uncaring mother. Brimming with literary allusions, commentary on the rich and famous, and the necessary ingredients for a successful novel, Gibson’s ingenious debut succeeds on many levels. --Deborah Donovan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (May 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525951148
• ISBN-13: 978-0525951148
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #487,743 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A More Intellectual and Literary Gossip Girl, April 10, 2009

By	Book Dork (Southern California) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

Tanya Egan Gibson's debut novel How to Buy a Love of Reading is about more than just wealth and snobbery. It's about growing up, struggling with addiction and realizing that "money can't buy happiness" (Egan's character Bree would shudder at such a cliche).

Thought Provoking and Entertaining because...
- The characters start off seeming very one dimensional, yet as the story unfolds a profound depth appears in many of them. And those that aren't granted depth are denied purposefully- they don't deserve it.
- I appreciated the levels of relationship presented in the novel, especially between main characters Carley and Hunter, and the two writers Justin and Bree. They all have faults and do their share to cause havoc, but you can't but to hope that everything turns out okay in the end.
- The writing is quite entertaining; Gibson does a fantastic job satirizing many elements of this wealthy demographic. There is also true emotion that makes you sympathetic to people and things you may not normally feel bad for.
- The story within a story aspect was amusing (the story Bree writes for Carley is set on a reality show set), but also supported the whole reality vs. false appearances theme.

A Few Problems:
- The story is a bit difficult to get into; the first fifty or so pages aren't the best representative of the novel itself. Don't quit, just keep going. Forgiveness is a really important concept in the book...
- Some people are going to protest that the characters aren't realistic; I had no problem with this, since the characters represent more than just themselves.
- There are a few sections that I felt weren't necessary, you'll recognize them when you read them. Luckily there aren't many and they don't last long.

This is a novel for someone who is willing and able to peel back the layers and actually see it for what it's worth.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm afraid I can't recommend it, May 27, 2009

By	Delaney (WI) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

I think the notion of hiring someone to write your story or having your parents obsessed with finding you a passion is an enjoyable idea to play with.

And while the book is interesting enough, I am disappointed with the characters behaviors overall. The writing is fine if you dig super long sentences (I'm not a fan but I know readers who are). But the characters, they are awful people, and not in a tongue and cheek fun way, and not kids who really have reason for angst and are on a path to redemption for either the reader or themselves. They come across as over privilged whiners that I sort of kind of wouldn't mind if they fall on their faces.

This book is aimed at young adults. With my volunteer work I work with a lot of young adults and I can honestly say I could not in good conscience recommend this book to any of the teens I work with.

The book is told in slow moving layers with loathsome characters who are either absurd, foolish or apathetic. Carly our most apathetic in the beginning of the book does develop into a somewhat more likeable character she does develop some strengths, but is still coddling a "friendship" or "relationship" that would make the most liberal of parents cringe. And maybe the book is really great and I missed it, and maybe the charcters weren't so awful and maybe the point was to foster a relationship I don't understand. But the fact that I reached the end of the book and wasn't sure what the point really had been or how I was supposed to feel or even why I felt empty about the book means - I didn't like it and I wouldn't recommend it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the love of Books, April 11, 2009

By	R. DelParto "Rose2" (Virginia Beach, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

This is not the average teen angst story. Carley Wells has been enticed to become a reader of literature because she simply does not posses the love for great books. Through the process, she engages in an array of escapades that help her to find herself while at the same time trying to pass her English class and prepare for the SAT. And to top that off, she is head over heels over Hunter Clay, a mega bibliophile who lives, breathes, and sleeps with great literature.

What is unique about this novel is the premise of Carley's predicament and having a novel written personally for her by author Bree McEnroy. The entire process is a smorgasbord of character references from literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Odyssey, as well as American popular culture, Jackie Kennedy and host of others. And the book is supposedly and personally catered towards Carley's interest, which is displayed in the preliminary stages of the plot that resembles an unusual reality show set during Medieval or Elizabethan times but with a present day twist that does not exactly fall within the lines of "Gossip Girl" or a Joss Whedon series. Through an exchange of emails between Carley and Bree, readers see the tedious and agonizing editing of Carley's novel. But the book is drama in itself, which is humorous and satirical, especially for those who are able to read each passage; there is a small tinge of Joycean pattern that journeys to the unconscious mind of understanding.

Overall, HOW TO BUY A LOVE OF READING is an exciting book. One of the interesting aspect of the story is the relationship between Carley and Hunter. Indeed, it is a long and winding road that leads readers through the unpredictable conclusion. The story is almost like the cliché of how literature imitates life, and Carley's novel happens to fall within that category.