Jane Austen's Bookshelf - Book of the Year 2025

I've never been accused of being a Jane Austen fan, but I am a huge fan of Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney. This is that rare book that has all of the detail and context that usually only a stuffy, dull academic bothers with, but is told through the passion of a true book collector. To look at an author through the lens of the books they read and would have been influenced by is a fun way to study an author, but it's a great way to learn about books.

Again, all of the names and dusty titles that everyone had forgotten about could have been as boring as a bibliographic listing, but when told by someone who is on a quest to learn and collect all these books... it becomes more like a detective story. This book seems to be everywhere these days, and it's well deserved. I've seen it pitched as feminist, as history, and as criticism, and it certainly has those elements. But from page one, it is clear this should be pitched for people who love books about books.

I enjoyed this book so much, I even made a short list of five (still living) authors that I really appreciate, as I am tempted to email them and ask, "What three books do you hold high and most relish," so that I too can buy those books. And that is about as high a praise as I can give any book I read... being inspired to do something.

So I highly recommend Romney's Jane Austen's Bookshelf to anyone who likes books about books. This one is not just for Janeites. And I hope you're inspired to read the cited sources, introductions, and footnotes a little more closely, and allow one book to push you to another and then another, and so on. That's part of the magic and fun of books and collecting books.

If you missed the category winners for 2025, they were shared earlier and can be found here. Happy New Year to each of you! I hope you celebrate with a smile on your face and a good book in your hand.