Top 10 books about books

Antoine Laurain is a novelist, screenwriter, journalist, director and collector of antique keys. A truly born and bred Parisian, after studying film, he began his career directing short films and writing screenplays. His passion for art led him to take a job assisting an antiques dealer in Paris. The experience provided the inspiration for his first novel, The Portrait, winner of the Prix Drouot.

The Reader’s Room is Laurain's latest book.

At the Guardian, Laurain tagged nine novels and one work of nonfiction that offer "an insight into the strange world of creating books, the bizarre job that is being a novelist and the magic that can exist (sometimes literally) within the books that we read." One title on the list:

The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte

One of Perez-Reverte’s strangest stories. Book dealer Lucas Corso embarks on a mission to find a lost book, printed in Venice in the 16th century. But this book contains engravings that, following a certain ritual can, summon the devil.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Dumas Club is among Peter Colt's eight novels featuring unlikely detectives.

--Marshal Zeringue