The Literary Pocket Companion

If you’ve ever picked up a novel and settled down in a nice comfy chair, rummaged though a secondhand bookshop, or spent hours in the library thumbing through the volumes you mean to read one day, then this is the book for you. Within these pages are hundreds of facts, figures, stories, and trivia about reading and writing, from the earliest printed books to today’s bestsellers. You will find out whether you are a sponge, a sandglass, a strain-bag, or a mogul diamond; why Lewis Carroll was once accused of being Jack the Ripper; the working title of Lady Chatterley’s Lover; and which bestselling classic was rejected 22 times, once with the note: "garbage passing itself off as literature." It’s the only book about books that you’ll ever need.