Book Recommendation

The Last Book by Stephen Cline

A fun, imaginative book — if thinking is your idea of fun

Apt Title

This simple title of Cline’s latest novel is ironically intriguing. The mind associates immediately to the very real possibility that there could be such a thing as “the last book.” We know that reading books — actual books, not ebooks, not digital books, not audio books — is not as pervasive as we want it to be. It’s a rarity. I was once at an outdoor table looking at my phone for directions and I heard an elderly man compliment a younger man for reading an actual book, saying how rare it was to see. I wanted to say, “Me too! I read books!” But no, there I was being phone-obsessed decadent.

Cautionary Tale

This novel plays with these ideas that are in the zeitgeist — the domination of the digital world, the technological age, contrasted to what is being lost — books, traditional instruments, human connection.

The main character, Charles Sutton, a book lover and professor, finds himself in possession of this mysterious book that magically (or enigmatically) changes its contents for the reader, so that a new story (along with its cover) is presented for the reader. Within this novel, there are stories that show up…