Picked by Bibliophile fans

Here are 4 books that Bibliophile fans have personally recommended once you finish the Bibliophile series. Shepherd is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of Massimo Listri. The World's Most Beautiful Libraries

Marianne Julia Strauss Author Of Do You Read Me? Bookstores Around The World

From my list on to give a book lover.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am writing about the good things in life, covering love, books, motorcycles, and everything in between. It was around 2010 when I started travelling for my job as a travel journalist and lived abroad for some years in France, Namibia, and Indonesia. I started to visit indie bookstores in every city I got to and made a book out of them ten years later. The best part was the precious, deep, and always inspiring conversations with the bookshop owners. This list contains their and my favourite well-tried book present recommendations for every age and occasion.

Marianne's book list on to give a book lover

Marianne Julia Strauss Why Marianne loves this book

With its double book size and its weight of 7 kg, this breathtaking tome by Massimo Listri defines the ‘coffee table book’ new - in fact you could use it at coffee table itself! The photos and stories of the most amazing libraries from the 15th to the 19th century will blow you away. As pricyest book of this list it is a perfect present for a milestone birthday for a dear one who loves historical libraries (and who wouldn’t?).

By Georg Ruppelt , Elisabeth Sladek ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Massimo Listri. The World's Most Beautiful Libraries as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the mighty halls of ancient Alexandria to the coffered ceilings of the Morgan Library in New York, human beings have had a long, enraptured relationship with libraries. Like no other concept and like no other space, the collection of knowledge, learning, and imagination offers a sense of infinite possibility. It's the unrivaled realm of discovery, where every faded manuscript or mighty clothbound tome might reveal a provocative new idea, a far-flung fantasy, an ancient belief, a religious conviction, or a whole new way of being in the world.

In this new photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of…


Book cover of The Shadow of the Wind

Mark Stibbe Author Of A Book in Time

From my list on the magic of books, bookshops, and libraries.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a boy, my adoptive father – a star pupil and friend of C.S. Lewis – heard I’d started reading the Sherlock Holmes stories. He bought every Sherlock Holmes book he could find. I remember lifting one to my nose and smelling the pages. I fell in love with books that day. I went on to earn a senior scholarship in English Literature at Cambridge University, and a PhD in storytelling. Since then, I have written over 50 books of my own and ghostwritten over 30 titles. I now host The Christian Storyteller Channel on YouTube, and I run BookLab, dedicated to helping emerging authors. My whole life is books.

Mark's book list on the magic of books, bookshops, and libraries

Mark Stibbe Why Mark loves this book

I love the idea that books have souls, and I adore this quotation from Zafon’s classic novel: “Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.”

I was thrilled to find this novel after I’d written my book because it shows that there are others who sense the soulful quality of old books. I also love it because it is written by a Spanish novelist, and it is in the Spanish-speaking world that we find the true literary origins of my most-loved genre of writing – magical realism.

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón , Lucia Graves (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The Shadow of the Wind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestseller

"The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero." -Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)

"One gorgeous read." -Stephen King

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been…


Book cover of Library Lion

David Rubel Author Of The Carpenter's Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree

From my list on picture books that touch the heart of everyone.

Why am I passionate about this?

I like Harold and the Purple Crayon as much as the next guy, but what I look for most in a picture book—or really any work of fiction—is whether it touches my heart. I write most often about history, and in those books, I aim to be as rational as possible, but as a reader, I deeply appreciate honest sentimentality—the kind that an author earns through authenticity rather than contrivance. It’s what I struggled to achieve myself when Habitat for Humanity asked me to collaborate with them on a picture book that evoked the spirit of the organization.

David's book list on picture books that touch the heart of everyone

David Rubel Why David loves this book

I particularly enjoy the deadpan humor of this book, in which a lion wanders into a library for its children’s story hour. Once the last story is read, the lion roars his disapproval that the story hour has ended. This brings him into confrontation with the no-nonsense librarian, Miss Merriweather, who informs the lion that if he cannot be quiet, he will have to leave.

The charm of this story lies in the gentle way in which the lion adapts to library rules and becomes Miss Merriweather’s helpmate. As one might expect, Mr. McBee, the tattletale circulation clerk, finds an excuse to have the lion banned from the library for breaking a rule, but the plot resolves with great sweetness as even Mr. McBee comes to value the lion’s presence.

By Michelle Knudsen , Kevin Hawkes (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Library Lion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

A wonderful addition to any child's library, this is the multiple award-winning and bestselling picture book about what happens when a lion visits a library.

In this international and award-winning bestseller about the joys of discovering the library and making new friends, a lion visits the library for the very first time. The head librarian, Miss Merriweather, is very particular about rules in the library. But when the lion visits, she isn't sure what to do - there aren't any rules about lions in the library! As it turns out, this lion seems very well suited to library visiting. His…


Book cover of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores

Marianne Julia Strauss Author Of Do You Read Me? Bookstores Around The World

From my list on to give a book lover.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am writing about the good things in life, covering love, books, motorcycles, and everything in between. It was around 2010 when I started travelling for my job as a travel journalist and lived abroad for some years in France, Namibia, and Indonesia. I started to visit indie bookstores in every city I got to and made a book out of them ten years later. The best part was the precious, deep, and always inspiring conversations with the bookshop owners. This list contains their and my favourite well-tried book present recommendations for every age and occasion.

Marianne's book list on to give a book lover

Marianne Julia Strauss Why Marianne loves this book

For any friend of yours that loves laughing or is a bookseller or wonders about the strangeness of human mankind often or has ever been in a bookstore, or all of that together, this is a perfect present. Jen Campbell is a bookseller herself and has a fine and hilarious sense of humour that is very contagious and perfectly capable to turn a rainy Saturday afternoon into some well-lived hours.

By Jen Campbell ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Can books conduct electricity?'

'My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that's ok... isn't it?'

A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the "Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops" blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller's collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. From 'Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?' to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; and from 'I've forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter' to 'Excuse me... is this book edible?'

This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers…