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  • Published: 7 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529967180
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $30.00

Bookish

How Reading Shapes Our Lives




The highly anticipated sequel to BOOKWORM about how books of all kinds delight, guide, comfort and strengthen us throughout our adult lives

‘A bookworm’s delight’ Sara Collins
‘Funny, warm and charming’ Marian Keyes
‘Like butter on toast: perfect’ Caitlin Moran

A love letter to all those who come alive when they pull a new treasure off the shelf, stay up late reading just one more page and pack their suitcases with clothes wedged between books instead of the other way around.

From well-worn literary classics to steamy bonkbusters, gripping thrillers, young adult novels and other not-so-guilty pleasures Bookish brims with literary insights, wry observations and stellar recommendations. This is an ode to the bookish places – from local libraries to bookshops big and small – and the stories that make us who we are.

‘Comforting, funny and moving – Bookish is wonderful to curl up with on good days and bad’ Sali Hughes
‘An affectionate, warm guide on the healing power of reading’ i News
‘Mangan makes for a wonderfully incisive critic and can pick apart a George Orwell with the same perspicacity with which she can, say, a Jack Reacher’ Observer

READER’S LOVE BOOKISH

A perfect read for all of us under the spellbinding influence of books!
I found myself laughing at her wit and nodding in agreement at the books she loves
Perfect book for bookworms and you’ll feel as if you've found your tribe.
This is a book which will fill every bookworm's heart with joy!
A perfect read for all of us under the spellbinding influence of books!
Would again make a perfect gift for any bookish bookworm
If you love books – and I mean really, really, love them, you should buy this book.
I have never felt more seen.

  • Published: 7 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529967180
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $30.00

About the author

Lucy Mangan

Lucy Mangan is a columnist for Stylist magazine and a features writer and reviewer for The Guardian, The Telegraph and many other publications. She broadcasts frequently on radio and occasionally on television, and is the author My Family and Other Disasters, The Reluctant Bride, Hopscotch and Handbags and Inside Charlie’s Chocolate Factory.

Also by Lucy Mangan

See all

Praise for Bookish

Lucy Mangan on books is like butter on toast: perfect.

Caitlin Moran

An affectionate, warm guide on the healing power of reading.

Independent

What Mangan does brilliantly is express the experience of reading and articulate the emotional connections we make with stories. She understands how books become entwined in our lives and help us make sense of the world.

Observer (Bookworm)

A bookworm’s delight. A joyous whistle stop tour through some books I’ve loved all my life as well as books I discovered through reading it. I devoured this book.

Sara Collins

Such a gorgeous writer… Funny, warm and charming… A beautiful, warm, comic voice. If you’re a passionate reader, this book feels like the best conversation ever with another of your kind. I was engaged, comforted, educated (about SO much). I laughed, and wanted to be part of your family, and made lists of all the books I need to buy, and was very moved.

Marian Keyes

Comforting, funny and moving - Bookish is wonderful to curl up with on good days and bad.

Sali Hughes

An unabashed paean to the pleasure of acquiring more books than you could ever possibly read in your life… a whirlwind tour through her [Mangan’s] voracious, encyclopedic adult reading habit… This is a book by someone whom reading is life

Spectator

Bookish… tackles the myriad complexities of adulthood…[Mangan] makes for a wonderfully incisive critic and can pick apart a George Orwell with the same perspicacity with which she can, say, a Jack Reacher, or the lesser-known Brontë sister, Anne

Observer

Readers won’t share all of Mangan’s preferences, but that’s part of the point – it’s enjoyable enough to eavesdrop on the pleasures of a committed bookworm… A book on books needs marginalia, and this one doesn’t disappoint

Times Literary Supplement

Brimful of recommendations, packed with insights and sprinkled with wry observations, Bookish is a delight

Simple Things