When a Book Captures Your Heart and Soul

Submitted: 24th August 2025

When a Book Captures Your Heart and Soul

There are many books that I feel have captured my heart and soul, but there are some very special ones that I can’t stop thinking about. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy or fantastical novels, Having said that, I have found myself reading more and more. I find the soft fantasy novels very escapist. They’re set in the real world and a little in the other world and that mix is captivating. They’re also books which can have booktrail maps and so that is a good thing, Maps and books as you know are EVERYTHING!

Map to the Book of Doors

Book of Doors collection

So, I became a bit obsessed with this book – the fact that there could be books that give readers powers. Books that are so powerful, could be dangerous in the wrong hands. A collection of books so rare that evil people are looking for them and will do anything to own them.

Map to the Book of Doors

Book of Doors stamp (c) The BookTrail

Map to the Book of Doors

I fell in love with this book quite early on in my reading. I stalked the poor author on twitter (sorry Gareth!) and then saw him in Waterstone Durham and may have fangirled him there ( sorry again Gareth) haha. But to be fair, he did gift me The Book of Doors in Spanish as I had been talking about it on socials and dying to get my hands on a copy. Why? Books of this type read very magically in Spanish I find. They lend themselves well to the rhythm and nuances of the language. Quite simply, i wanted to enter the world of these books again, and Gareth literally gave me the key.

Map to the Book of Doors

When an author stamps your book and that stamp is from Fox Library which appears in the story, one of my literary life goals was complete. It’s as close as I have ever got to being inside a book and almost touching the walls of the fictional library.

I love this book and it was such a lovely surprise. Reading outside of a genre I don’t have much experience of, was truly magical.

Susan

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