Free Book Giveaway: The Little Paris Bookshop: A Novel
I'm giving away the above book to make space on my bookshelf. To claim the book, please fill out the following form and input the giveaway code applicable to this book. This book is available on a first-claim-first-get basis. I will ship the book for free to the first claimer who resides in the USA. This giveaway has no deadline and is open as long as no one claims the book. I posted the giveaway code of this book on Twitter. Please check my Tweets for the giveaway code, or you can subscribe to my email list to be alerted of my giveaway codes regularly. To read the back cover summary of this book , please click here.
I bought this book long time ago because I was lured by the book title. I love visiting bookstores and when I saw this book on the shelf at one of the bookstores which I patroned, I couldn't resist buying it. But like the many other books that I had bought, I had forgotten about this book after I put it on my bookshelf. I'm not an avid reader but I'm definitely an avid books buyer. Since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, I haven't visited a bookstore in person. How I miss the good old days when I lost myself between the bookshelves at the stores. How I miss the various coffee drinks and baked goods that I consumed while flipping through the latest magazines at the bookstores. This has to be the longest time in my entire life when I haven't stepped into a bookstore. Today I found this book while organizing my bookshelf. Since I don't go to a bookstore anymore for fear of getting Covid--19, I guess reading this book is the next best alternative to visiting a bookstore? I will give this book away when I'm done reading. Please follow me on Twitter for the giveaway update. You are also welcome to share you thoughts about this book with me by commenting below.
I just finished reading Chapter 1. This is the chapter where the man and the woman are going to meet. Is this how all stories begin? What I see in this chapter is, there was this single middle-age man who seemed to be carrying a huge burden from his past, and there was this new female neighbor of his who seemed to be awfully sad. Looks like these two are the match made in heaven because sadness seemed to be the one thing they had in common. This chapter is about a man who took the pain to go inside this secret room that he hadn't entered for over 20 years to retrieve an old table so he could give it to his new female neighbor who was said to have nothing. I call this room the secret room because it was hidden behind his bookshelf which he had to remove lots of books before he could get inside. So, he spent all this time and energy for a stranger whom he never met? Why? Why didn't he just buy a table to give her? What had happened in the past that caused him to avoid entering that room? This chapter ended when he heard his new neighbor cry as he carried his table over to her apartment. Why was she crying? At this point, I had put the book aside because I had this urge to come here to write down what I feel. I'm not sure when I will pick up this book again.
ReplyDeleteI just finished Chapter 2 & 3. These two chapters introduced Monsieur Perdu’s neighbors and gave me a tiny little glimpse at his secret past in that hidden room behind the bookshelf. So, all that secrecy was about a woman. Of course, it had to always be about a woman or whoever the main character’s love interest was once upon a time. I also came to see where Monsieur Perdu worked. To me, owning and running a floating bookshop / book barge docked at River Seine sounds like the “dream career”. I wish I could do just that for a living. I found out that there is a bookstore that is called “The Literary Apothecary” in our real world. This is however an online bookstore, not the romantic floating one like Monsieur Perdu’s. The online bookstore is said to be inspired by this book.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapter 6, I had to put this book down again. But before I did, I jumped to the reader’s guide at the back to see if there is anything that can help me appreciate this book more. The first question in the reader’s guide quoted, “Memories are like wolves. You can’t lock them away and hope they leave you alone.” I don’t like this quote. I don’t understand how memories are like wolves. How can memories be generalized like this? Doesn’t everyone have at least one good memory? Or, must all our memories be scary and dangerous like the wolves? And if all bad memories are like the wolves, locking them away is an effective solution to guarantee that they won’t come back to hurt us. Have you seen any dangerous wild animals that were locked away that came back to hurt the same person again? To me, this quote is like putting different words in one sentence just to be fancy and to add length to the book. Unfortunately, bad memories aren’t like wolves, so they can’t just be locked away. May be this book will get better?
ReplyDeleteThe name of the bookstore owner's love interest is finally revealed to be Catherine in Chapter 7. This is the chapter that introduced me more to the lives of his neighbors as he walked back home from his floating bookstore. I learned the bistro where he lunched often. I learned about his neighbors in his apartment building as he bumped into them while walking upstairs. I hope all these supporting characters whom I learned now are going to make the story more interesting later on. Or will they?
ReplyDeleteChapater 8 is where Monsieur Perdu and his love interest Catherine engaged in their first conversation. Catherine found an old letter in the drawer of the table that Monsieur Perdu gave her. When she tried to return the letter to him, he became upset and he denied it was his letter. He was even angry at her for trying to return the letter to him. What an awkward first interaction between the two. Now, why did that old letter drive Monsieur Perdu so mad?
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 is another chapter that is all about the tedious moments of Monsieur Perdu's life. I was still learning about him in this Chapter. I learned that his parents were divorced for a very long time and he visited his dad and mom routinely as the messenger between the two. I also learned that he was still hung up on an ex. Catherine put a note in Monsieur Perdu's mailbox to invite him to dinner in her apartment and she told him to bring a plate. In her invitation note, she even mentioned the letter that she found. Yes, that myterious letter that had been bothering Monsieur Perdu since Chapter 8. At this point, I don't understand why this book was the international bestseller. Just what do people like about this story?
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