Book Review: Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins - Page 4

At the end of Sixpence House, Collins tellingly reveals his favorite work that made it from the high stack in his bedroom to the cherished night stand placement. It is called Recreations of a Country Parson, written by Andrew Boyd in 1861. The musings within the book, the essentially unreligious Collins notes, “are sermons in disguise, really, and they will put you to sleep. I mean that as a compliment: he is a very calming writer” who comes off as “a companionable fellow, neither dogmatic nor uncommitted, and keenly aware of the absurdities of our world and of our human nature.”

In essence, then, Recreations of a Country Parsons is a keeper. It’s a book that Collins will, doubtlessly, not leave in a box out in the middle of the street in Hay. Just as I’ll be sure that Sixpence House makes it into the U-Haul truck for my next move.

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for the San Diego Union Tribune. For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores. Email him and he'll stop talking in the third-person.
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