Snider pays homage to bibliophilia via a Haruki Murakami bingo game and a breakdown of bookshelf types that includes “stylish but shallow” and “stuck in high school.” Snider’s relationship to literature runs deep and is fraught with recognizable “Reader’s Blocks,” such as “low curiosity” or “overwhelmed by infinite possibility.” The panels range from gently clever to surprisingly profound to laugh-out-loud. He riffs on literary genres (“Choose Your Own Memoir” displays a MadLibs mash-up of tropes) and the writing process (“The Writer’s Block” offers a Richard Scarry–esque streetscape whose “Publishing House” bears a “No Soliciting” sign). Snider is “writing the great American novel,” and one gets the sense that creating these comics was an escape during slumps. With a striking package including a die-cut cover, I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf is a full-color graphic novel celebrating books, authors, and reading, and the perfect gift for any book lover, young or old.This playful, self-aware collection of strips and gags on the joys and frustrations of reading and writing is equal parts lighthearted and sincere. I like my realism with a little bit of magic. His words and art will strike a chord with anyone who has to move books when you have a guest over or can’t place your coffee mug down on your coffee table because it is covered with novels, history, memoirs, classics, and self-help. In this lighthearted collection of one- and two-page comics, writer-artist Grant Snider explores bookishness in all its forms, and the love of writing and reading, building on the beloved literary comics featured on his website, Incidental Comics. We collect them, decorate with them, pile them up, hoard them, are inspired by them, and treat them almost like sacred objects. But, also, some of us surround ourselves with books, unwilling to let them go. We learn to read at an early age, and as years pass some of us shed our old books for new ones.

It’s no secret that we are judged by our bookshelves. Celebrate the culture and fanaticism of book lovers with beloved illustrator Grant Snider, whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, and more.

I ll judge you by your bookshelf