Rena Reads

3.5 stars

As much as I wanted to fall in love with this book about book lovers, it was hit-or-miss for me. There are parts that I was like, "Yesss, Lawd!" when talking about the exquisite joy of used books and sharing with a common bond with fellow readers. Other parts just dragged on and on, like the chapter about how to fake like you've read famous books (some were books I could care less about impressing someone with). Based on the book's title, I expected Lauren Leto to be snarky (which I don't mind), but her pretentiousness also came through and rubbed me the wrong way sometimes. The best of Judging a Book By Its Lover are Leto's personal anecdotes: being a nerd, just wanting to be left alone to read, her grandparents' love of books passed down to her. If she had given me more of that, and not endless lists describing what you've read says about you and what book to gift someone, I would have been more than fine with that. Because I am interested in what you read, Lauren...so stop trying to impress me.