What a great point. The Shadow of the Wind is a beautiful book, a glorious read, a remarkable experience, or at least it was to me when a friend pressed his newly purchased copy on me.

After I finished it (and started looking for anything else Zafon might have written) we gave the book to a third, mutual friend. He wouldn't read it! Said he didn't trust our taste, said we only like boring books. He didn't come right out and say that he thought we were pretentious snobs, but that's what he meant.

And he had reason. We teased him about his reading choices quite a lot. He likes Patterson. He likes flimsy thrillers. He even likes Dan Brown.

So, when we told him this new novel by Zafon was an absolute must read, that he would love it, he didn't trust us.

Years later, he finally did read The Shadow of the Wind, and he loved it as much as we thought he would. Then he sought out the the sequels. But our book snobbery did a lot to convince him not to read it.