There are a plethora of books featuring bibliophile protagonists, with or without a charming bookshop. Since everything these days is about relatability, having a likeable reader propelling the plot is not a bad idea. It’s easier to root for someone you identify with, and who better to invest in this plot than a book person?
The role of reading can take several forms in the stories, everything from a comfort to an escape to a means for human connection.
Here are some bookworm protagonists and the stories that carry them.
1.
Lydia, the protagonist of this thriller, owns a bookstore in Acapulco. She keeps her favorite titles displayed, waiting for the day a customer asks for her recommendations. One day, a suave man named Javier stops in. Lydia discovers they share common tastes in books. When he stops in again with chocolates, they bond over a shared love of Love in the Time of Cholera. Lydia doesn’t know that Javier is La Lechuza, a notorious drug lord.
Lydia’s love of books reappears a few times as she and her son travel north to escape Javier. He tries to woo her back by quoting Cholera. The final scene references the book as well. The title, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is a kind of MacGuffin that both propels the plot and symbolizes Lydia’s freedom.
2.
Books provide a less literal escape to Isra and her four daughters. Married young to an American Palestinian, Isra lives a miserable existence in Brooklyn with an overbearing mother-in-law and occasionally abusive husband.
Isra finds a needed escape through books. Her four daughters share her love of reading. One, Deya, eventually discovers the power of her own voice. Expression is her ticket to freedom, in surprising ways.
3.
Emilia is struggling to run the bookshop she inherited from her late father. It acts as a meeting point for many of the locals, who bond over books, or meet up with old loves at signings. In this story, a shared love of Anna Karenina can bring the warmth of a new friend or companion. There is a nice feeling that eventually grows a bit saccharine.
4.
Nina Hill is an only child with a single mother she rarely sees. She lives in a guesthouse in Los Angeles and works for a bookstore, getting out to four different book clubs and ongoing pub trivia nights.
When she discovers that her biological father has died, Nina is thrust for the first time into family relations.
Books are central to Nina’s life, as important as people. There are some hints that her solitary life may be a way of avoiding intimacy, but the author is savvy enough not to insult book people. Nina enjoys her book-saturated life and isn’t sure she wants any distraction.
This is a funny and charming rom-com for the hip-to-be-square crowd.
Books Smitten 