IRISH CHOICE: Kenny's Choice: 101 Irish Books You Must Readby Des KennyCurrach Press, 335pp, €19.99
ONE OF LIFE'S great pleasures when visiting Galway city used to be a trip to High Street and a leisurely rummage through Kennys bookstore.
Half a day or more could be lost among the nooks and crannies of the shop, up the stairs and down again, in the discovery of titles and authors only heard of. Kennys on High Street is no more but it continues to exist virtually online and in a new shop at Liosbán Retail Park on the Tuam Road. But it is the space of that original premises that still captivates Des Kenny's imagination. Perhaps all acts of writing are disguised acts of memoir. Certainly it is the case here.
For, in the midst of his careful detailing of the 101 choices that we must read, is a narrative of how a small bookshop became a thriving business. It is, in many ways, a loving testament to his father and his mother, both of whose presence is central to this story.
Kenny has spent a lifetime in the book trade and has savoured every moment. He puts his formidable experience and knowledge to good use in the making of his list, which not unlike a visit to the bookshop itself is full of quirky books and writers who have slipped from memory and critical favour. Who reads or knows of William Cotter Murphy, or of Richard Power? Very few, one would imagine.
The nature of any list is to generate debate and, naturally, many will be animated by who has been included and who missed the cut.
No James Joyce or Elizabeth Bowen? Preferring John Banville's Birchwoodto the magnificent Doctor Copernicus? Yet who can argue with celebrating JM Synge's The Aran Islands, a book which is not only a source for the better-known plays, but also a remarkably significant text that blended anthropological distance with the intimacy of autobiography.
Such a blend of genres influenced numerous island-memoir narratives and fiction of the 1920s and 1930s.
Kenny's range is wide: poetry, drama, historical texts, novels, children's books and memoirs all go into the mix of his selection. Irish language books such as Pádraic Ó Conaire's Scothscéaltaand Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán-Oichealso make their way into his roll call.
Each choice is explained and background information offered about the author as well as who published the book. And there are anecdotes in abundance. A favourite is how one customer to Kennys , no less than William Randolph Hearst Jr, had to borrow twenty pounds to buy a round of drinks: the rich, it seems, are always short of ready cash.
This personal touch is never too far away in Kenny's discussion of writers and their work. The story of two young authors - Neil Jordan and Desmond Hogan - coming to the shop in the 1970s trying to sell their wares is accompanied by a fabulous photograph of that day.
The book is peppered with pictures of many of the authors; those same pictures that were dotted around the walls of the shop. Des Kenny has been touched by the writers in his quirky catalogue and, as a seller, as someone, as he says himself, who is driven to match individual books with individual readers, he makes his recommendations hoping that a connection might be made.
Doubtless many readers will be encouraged to seek out some of the books mentioned here and share in that delight. Job done.
• Derek Hand is a lecturer in English in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. He is currently writing A History of the Irish Novel: 1650 to the Present for the Cambridge University Press.