100 books like The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

By Lewis Buzbee,

Here are 100 books that The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop fans have personally recommended if you like The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of Complicated Hearts

Sai Marie Johnson Author Of Simply Scarlet: A Sensual Tale of Lust and Love

From my list on steamy books with a bite.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for this type of writing because I am talented at it and I feel that illustrious and sensuous writing with an erotic flair is something very under-sung and often stigmatized. It has been more accepted since the Fifty Shades of Grey trend, but I feel there are so many authors who have yet to achieve the recognition they deserve for their efforts in this artistic and intriguing genre!

Sai's book list on steamy books with a bite

Sai Marie Johnson Why did Sai love this book?

So, Ashley’s book isn’t exactly dark romance, but it is one of those duos that has an incredibly racy bite! When you consider the variables for a young adult m/f/m relationship that is riddled with angst and possibility, it’s easy to see why this book has all the scandal and heat you need to keep you bitten and trapped within the pages!

By Ashley Jade,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Complicated Hearts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Breslin—I was in love with Asher Holden the moment I saw him...and I knew nothing would ever be the same. Then he hurt me. He wrecked me. He ruined me. I spent three years putting myself together—fixing what he broke. I never thought I'd see him again after that day. I was counting on it. Little did I know—life had other plans...and things were going to become a lot more complicated. Asher—I finally know who I am. I own it, I embrace it...I'm no longer afraid. I live my life with no regrets now, because I've learned my lesson—the hard…


Book cover of Bibliophile

Marianne Julia Strauss Author Of Do You Read Me? Bookstores Around The World

From my list on to give a book lover.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am writing about the good things in life, covering love, books, motorcycles, and everything in between. It was around 2010 when I started travelling for my job as a travel journalist and lived abroad for some years in France, Namibia, and Indonesia. I started to visit indie bookstores in every city I got to and made a book out of them ten years later. The best part was the precious, deep, and always inspiring conversations with the bookshop owners. This list contains their and my favourite well-tried book present recommendations for every age and occasion.

Marianne's book list on to give a book lover

Marianne Julia Strauss Why did Marianne love this book?

From the workspaces of famous authors to bookish quiz questions to portraits of the most adorable bookstore cats, this one is an illustrated love letter to the universe of books. Jane Mount recommends her best reads from memoirs to fantasy, shows her favourite bookstores, and presents songs about books, books that were turned into great films and so much more, including for sure some beautiful book facts that are new to your giftee.

By Jane Mount,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bibliophile as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Searching for perfect book lovers gifts? Rejoice! Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany, is a love letter to all things bookish. Author Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. It's a must-have for every book collection, and makes a wonderful literary gift for book lovers, writers, and more.

Readers of Jane Mount's Bibliophile will delight in:
Touring the world's most beautiful bookstores Testing their knowledge of the written word with quizzes Finding their next great read in lovingly curated stacks of books Sampling the most famous fictional meals Peeking inside the workspaces of…


Book cover of Any Person Is the Only Self: Essays

Evan Friss Author Of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

From my list on about bookstores.

Why am I passionate about this?

My life is, in many ways, centered around bookstores. It all began at Three Lives & Co., a magical indie in the West Village of Manhattan. My girlfriend, now wife, worked there as a bookseller, and it was through her experience (and me hanging around the shop) that I developed an appreciation for how vital and wondrous bookstores can be. I was so enamored that I spent years researching the history of bookstores, visiting as many bookstores as I could, and talking to as many booksellers as possible. The result is my book.

Evan's book list on about bookstores

Evan Friss Why did Evan love this book?

Admittedly, this is a book more about reading than bookstores, but I admire Gabbert’s ability to write so eloquently about the ways that we find books, read books, and treasure books. Each essay is unique, but I was able to patch together my own narrative—and reconsider my relationship to my mind and my books—along the way.

By Elisa Gabbert,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Any Person Is the Only Self as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Contagiously curious essays on reading, art, and the life of the mind, from the acclaimed author of The Unreality of Memory.

Who are we when we read? When we journal? Are we more ourselves alone or with friends? Right now or in memory? How does time transform us and the art we love?

In sixteen dazzling, expansive essays, the acclaimed essayist and poet Elisa Gabbert explores a life lived alongside books of all kinds: dog-eared and destroyed, cherished and discarded, classic and clichėd, familiar and profoundly new. She turns her witty, searching mind to the writers she admires, from Plath…


Book cover of Diary Of A Bookseller

Phaedra Patrick Author Of The Messy Lives of Book People

From my list on the power of books and reading.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by books since a young age. Not just reading the stories but also how they’re written, the cover design, literary agents, and the publishing industry in general. I’ve written five novels (four of which are USA Today bestsellers) and my work has been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide. My second novel, Rise & Shine, Benedict Stone, was made into a Hallmark movie in 2021. I still get excited about generating ideas for characters to take on unusual and joyous journeys of discovery. I’m a huge fan of reading books about the craft of writing, and I especially love novels about bookshops and libraries.

Phaedra's book list on the power of books and reading

Phaedra Patrick Why did Phaedra love this book?

This non-fiction book is uplifting, funny, and heartbreaking in equal measure as Shaun Bythell shares his diary of owning Scotland’s biggest second-hand book store. We get to meet the eccentric readers who frequent his bookshop and learn first-hand about the struggles of owning a small business, and the importance of books and the community.

By Sean Bythell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Diary Of A Bookseller as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Love, Nina meets Black Books: a wry and hilarious account of life in Scotland's biggest second-hand bookshop and the band of eccentrics and book-obsessives who work there

'The Diary Of A Bookseller is warm (unlike Bythell's freezing-cold shop) and funny, and deserves to become one of those bestsellers that irritate him so much.' (Mail on Sunday)

'Utterly compelling and Bythell has a Bennett-like eye for the amusing eccentricities of ordinary people ... I urge you to buy this book and please, even at the risk of being insulted or moaned at, buy it from a real live bookseller.' (Charlotte Heathcote…


Book cover of A History of the Book in America: The Enduring Book : Print Culture in Postwar America: 5

Beth Luey Author Of Expanding the American Mind: Books and the Popularization of Knowledge

From my list on that tell us why we read and write.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an avid reader, I'm curious about where books come from and what they do. How does a story get to be a book? How does someone become an author? What is happening to us as we read? I worked in publishing, and eventually, I started teaching other people how to become editors and publishers. As a faculty member, I had time to study and write about book history. I joined the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing when it was formed and became its president. The conferences helped me to learn about the history of books throughout the world and from pre-print times to the present.

Beth's book list on that tell us why we read and write

Beth Luey Why did Beth love this book?

I always like to start learning about a subject with an overview, and this book brings together experts on topics ranging from technology to censorship, marketing, copyright, and book clubs in the period starting with World War II. I turn to this volume, again and again, to refresh my knowledge and enjoy excellent writing by the top scholars in book history. Earlier volumes in the series cover the topic from colonial times.

By David Paul Nord,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A History of the Book in America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the only comprehensive, interpretive survey of the history of the book in the United States since 1945.The fifth volume of ""A History of the Book in America"" addresses the economic, social, and cultural shifts affecting print culture from World War II to the present. During this period factors such as the expansion of government, the growth of higher education, the climate of the Cold War, globalization, and the development of multimedia and digital technologies influenced the patterns of consolidation and diversification established earlier.The thirty-three contributors to the volume explore the evolution of the publishing industry and the business…


Book cover of In Praise of Good Bookstores

Evan Friss Author Of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

From my list on about bookstores.

Why am I passionate about this?

My life is, in many ways, centered around bookstores. It all began at Three Lives & Co., a magical indie in the West Village of Manhattan. My girlfriend, now wife, worked there as a bookseller, and it was through her experience (and me hanging around the shop) that I developed an appreciation for how vital and wondrous bookstores can be. I was so enamored that I spent years researching the history of bookstores, visiting as many bookstores as I could, and talking to as many booksellers as possible. The result is my book.

Evan's book list on about bookstores

Evan Friss Why did Evan love this book?

I delighted in Deutsch’s meditation on bookstores. His unique perspective, gained from years of running the Seminary Co-Op in Chicago, shines through the pages of this book. I especially loved his insights about why we so enjoy a good browse. I also appreciated the book's frankness—an honest assessment of just how hard running a bookstore can be.

By Jeff Deutsch,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked In Praise of Good Bookstores as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From a devoted reader and lifelong bookseller, an eloquent and charming reflection on the singular importance of bookstores

Do we need bookstores in the twenty-first century? If so, what makes a good one? In this beautifully written book, Jeff Deutsch-the former director of Chicago's Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world-pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions. He considers how qualities like space, time, abundance, and community find expression in a good bookstore. Along the way, he also predicts-perhaps audaciously-a future in which the bookstore not only endures, but realizes…


Book cover of How To Market A Book

Why am I passionate about this?

I teach historical martial arts for a living. 25 years ago, one of my students asked me to write a training manual about medieval Italian longswords, so I did… it took me four years and changed everything. Teaching in person is my favourite thing, but writing books about my art is a close second. I’m always on the lookout for ways to write better and faster and sell more books. Being an effective writer means I make enough money from my books that I can spend my time researching, writing, training, and teaching historical martial arts and have plenty of time to spend with my wife and kids.

Guy's book list on becoming an effective writer without wrecking your body or abandoning your ethics

Guy Windsor Why did Guy love this book?

I hated marketing, and I was scared it would turn me into a shrill and shallow person. But I realised I needed to learn to sell my work if I was ever going to make a decent amount of money with it—enough to justify the time I was spending on writing, editing, and publishing.

This book gave me the basic tools I needed to get over my internal resistance and start helping my readers better by letting them know about books they actually wanted.

By Joanna Penn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How To Market A Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Do you want to sell more books and reach more readers?
Do you want to discover how to build an author career for the long-term as well as spike your book sales right now?

If you don’t know much about marketing, don’t worry. We all start with nothing.

I’m Joanna Penn and back in 2008, I had no book sales, no audience, no website, no social media, no podcast, no email list. No nothing.

Now I’m a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and non-fiction. My books have sold over 600,000 copies in 162 countries, and…


Book cover of Beards

Andy Merrills Author Of The Vandals

From my list on thinking about history in a different way.

Why am I passionate about this?

Andy Merrills teaches ancient and medieval history at the University of Leicester. He is a hopeless book addict, writes occasionally for work and for the whimsical periodical Slightly Foxed, and likes nothing so much as reading elegantly-composed works which completely change the way he thinks about everything. (This happens quite a lot). 

Andy's book list on thinking about history in a different way

Andy Merrills Why did Andy love this book?

I came across this book unexpectedly in an American bookstore, and have since given it as a gift countless times. In essence, Reynolds provides a survey of human history through facial hair, creating a rambling, eccentric overview and proposing all sorts of improbable theories, many of which are probably right. The bookseller’s note on the back cover of my copy lists it as ‘History (?)’, which seems about right, but it has definitely made me think about history in a different way. I also now have a beard of my own (not connected).

Reynolds also wrote a similarly inspiring book about toilets.  

By Reginald Reynolds,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Beards as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


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Book cover of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores

Marianne Julia Strauss Author Of Do You Read Me? Bookstores Around The World

From my list on to give a book lover.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am writing about the good things in life, covering love, books, motorcycles, and everything in between. It was around 2010 when I started travelling for my job as a travel journalist and lived abroad for some years in France, Namibia, and Indonesia. I started to visit indie bookstores in every city I got to and made a book out of them ten years later. The best part was the precious, deep, and always inspiring conversations with the bookshop owners. This list contains their and my favourite well-tried book present recommendations for every age and occasion.

Marianne's book list on to give a book lover

Marianne Julia Strauss Why did Marianne love this book?

For any friend of yours that loves laughing or is a bookseller or wonders about the strangeness of human mankind often or has ever been in a bookstore, or all of that together, this is a perfect present. Jen Campbell is a bookseller herself and has a fine and hilarious sense of humour that is very contagious and perfectly capable to turn a rainy Saturday afternoon into some well-lived hours.

By Jen Campbell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Can books conduct electricity?'

'My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that's ok... isn't it?'

A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the "Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops" blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller's collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. From 'Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?' to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; and from 'I've forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter' to 'Excuse me... is this book edible?'

This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers…


Book cover of Published: The Proven Path From Blank Page To 10,000 Copies Sold

Cheryl Kaye Tardif Author Of How I Made Over $42,000 in 1 Month Selling My Kindle eBooks

From my list on for authors who want to increase book sales.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up reading my dad’s hardcore sci-fi and my mother’s romance, horror, and thrillers. This led to my desire to become a published author. Prior to 2012, I was a bestselling Canadian author with a handful of titles published. After hitting #4 on Amazon’s Bestsellers list, I was approached by agents and publishers. Within weeks I signed multiple contracts. Trident Media Group asked to represent me. Yes! I signed two audio deals with Audible, and multiple deals with foreign publishers. One of my mottos has always been to help other writers when I can, so I share my marketing expertise and experiences.

Cheryl's book list on for authors who want to increase book sales

Cheryl Kaye Tardif Why did Cheryl love this book?

I enjoyed reading about Chandler’s experience in publishing, and I liked his approach to documenting his actual experiences/strategies and sharing them with others. I don’t just want to read that an author has earned six figures; I want to know how they did it. Chandler has built a name for himself, offering his expertise in all things book publishing and marketing.

By Chandler Bolt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Published as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

SECOND EDITION (Released December, 2021)

Are you tired of “thinking about” writing a book, even making it a New Year’s Resolution, but never making it happen?

Maybe you’ve been sitting on a finished manuscript for years waiting to press publish? Or maybe your book launch failed and you’re wondering what went wrong?

In this conversational and action-oriented book, Chandler Bolt presents the proven path from blank page to published author and your first 10,000 copies sold.

In Published. you will learn:

The MORE Writing Method: how to write a quality book while saving 100’s of hours in the process How…


Book cover of Complicated Hearts
Book cover of Bibliophile
Book cover of Any Person Is the Only Self: Essays

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