What is Charlie Lovett reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Charlie Lovett, author of The Lost Book of the Grail.

His entry begins:

A lot of my reading is related to the projects I will be working on next. To prepare for The Lost Book of the Grail, which is set in the fictional English cathedral city of Barchester, I read Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire novels. Trollope created Barchester for this series, and I loved the books, though at a total of over 3500 pages, they kept me busy for a while.

My next novel is still in the early stages of brainstorming and deep background research, but it has led me to read a lot of early science fiction like Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine and...[read on]

About The Lost Book of the Grail, from the publisher:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale comes a new novel about an obsessive bibliophile’s quest through time to discover a missing manuscript, the unknown history of an English Cathedral, and the secret of the Holy Grail.

Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient books and manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library. Increasingly, he feels like a fish out of water among the concrete buildings of the University of Barchester, where he works as an English professor. His one respite is his time spent nestled in the library, nurturing his secret obsession with the Holy Grail and researching his perennially unfinished guidebook to the medieval cathedral.

But when a beautiful young American named Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester charged with the task of digitizing the library’s manuscripts, Arthur’s tranquility is broken. Appalled by the threat modern technology poses to the library he loves, he sets out to thwart Bethany, only to find in her a kindred spirit with a similar love for knowledge and books—and a fellow Grail fanatic.

Bethany soon joins Arthur in a quest to find the lost Book of Ewolda, the ancient manuscript telling the story of the cathedral’s founder. And when the future of the cathedral itself is threatened, Arthur and Bethany’s search takes on grave importance, leading the pair to discover secrets about the cathedral, about the Grail, and about themselves.

Learn more about the book and author at Charlie Lovett's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bookman's Tale.

My Book, The Movie: The Bookman's Tale.

The Page 69 Test: First Impressions.

My Book, The Movie: First Impressions.

My Book, The Movie: The Lost Book of the Grail.

The Page 69 Test: The Lost Book of the Grail.

Writers Read: Charlie Lovett.

--Marshal Zeringue