From the Bookshelf of The Perks Of Being A Book Addict…

The Starless Sea

Erin Morgenstern

Start date: January 1, 2020

Finish date: January 31, 2020

Discussion: Group Books of the Month (BotM)

Why we're reading this: Chosen as our group BotM in January 2020.
[close] Chosen as our group BotM in January 2020.

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What Members Thought

Nov 27, 2019 Carrie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fantasy, beautifully-moving, favorite-authors, cats, love-the-cover, lgbt, books-about-or-mentioning-books, magical, owls

Ever feel like a book was written for you? Like the author had you in mind when writing it? Well that was what The Starless Sea was for me. I actually cried many times when reading, the ache and the longing and familiarity. It was for ME.

This book is haunting and magical and one to be held tightly to the chest for many years to come. Erin Morgenstern is truly a gifted person and I will treasure and cherish her stories for the rest of my life.

16 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2019 Bruin Mccon rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-audiobook, library-ebook

“I think people came here for the same reason we came here. In search of something. Even if we don’t know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We’re here to wander through other people’s stories, searching for our own.”

The Starless Sea is a fantasy novel set in an underground library that turns out to be much more than that. It’s a love letter to books and a book about love and adventure. And it’s difficult for many people to finish.

“Be careful what stories y “I think people came here for the same reason we came here. In search of something. Even if we don’t know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We’re here to wander through other people’s stories, searching for our own.”

The Starless Sea is a fantasy novel set in an underground library that turns out to be much more than that. It’s a love letter to books and a book about love and adventure. And it’s difficult for many people to finish.

“Be careful what stories you tell yourself.”

I am a frequent DNFer so I am pretty much the poster child for not even bothering with this book, but I did. I checked it out of the library on audiobook and e-book and ended up re-reading everything I listened to because this is not a great audiobook listen, at least for me. There’s too much description to be missed in an approximately 16-hour listen that comes back later in the story.

So why did I like a book that stands seemingly in contrast to several of my long-held reading values? It’s very dreamy in a magical way that made me feel like this was the adult version of the movie Goonies. It tapped into a nostalgia I have for my childhood despite featuring nearly all adult characters. It was a pleasure to read such a weird book. It was unpredictable and lovely.

“For a while I was looking for a person but I didn’t find them and after that I was looking for myself. Now that I’ve found me I’m back to exploring, which is what I was doing in the first place before I was doing anything else and I think I was supposed to be exploring all along.”

The holidays tend to involve gift giving and for me that means book gifts. I don’t think I will gift this only because I don’t have relatives who would get wrapped up in this book like I did. I don’t think my family members would dig it and all my nieces are too young to have a Goonies piece of their hearts. But to all my younger Gen X sisters who want a fable to get lost in—I recommend this book to you. It’s strange and beautiful.

“How when he felt himself falling he would go and find a new book and fall into instead and be someone somewhere else for a while.” ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Marcia rated it really liked it

Reading this book felt like I was walking through a delicious ethereal dream, fantastical but real enough. Everything felt floaty and just within grasp...and when I thought I understood what was happening, the feeling slipped from my hands and left my brain a little buzzy and fuzzy....and always wanting to know where the dream was going to lead me to next. Fate, time, moon, Max....all so beautifully stitched together.

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