Book Club Discussion Questions for The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Performance Poetry and Slams and our BookBrowse Review of The Lost for Words Bookshop.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. How important are books to Loveday? Does she have to work in a bookshop, or would another kind of shop serve her just as well?
2. If you were going to have a line from a book tattooed on your skin, which line would you choose?
3. Why does Loveday choose poetry to get her message across?
4. Do you have any sympathy for Rob?
5. What does this book tell us about mothers and daughters?
6. Loveday is not a fan of people in general, and men in particular. Is she justified in this?
7. How important are the settings of this novel?
8. Loveday collects things—books, shells, tattoos. Why does she do this? How can collections help us to make sense of our lives?
9. Can you pinpoint the moment that Loveday's life goes wrong?
10. Who would play Archie in a movie of this book?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of St. Martin's Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.