Friday Friyay: 'The Book of the Most Precious Substance' by Sara Gran

Happy Friday! Today I'm super excited to share quotes from a book that was published yesterday, The Book of the Most Precious Substance. My review for it is here, in case you want to have a look! I went in expecting a thrilling book mystery and got that, but also a lovely dose of erotic fiction and beautiful exploration of a woman trying to find herself!

A book with all of life’s answers, if only you can find it...

Rare book dealer Lily Albrecht has just been given a tip-off about The Book of the Most Precious Substance, a 17th century manual rumoured to be the most powerful occult book ever written, if it really exists at all.

With some of the wealthiest people in the world willing to pay Lily a fortune to track it down, she embarks on a journey from New York to New Orleans to Munich to Paris.

If she finds it, Lily stands to gain more than just money. This could erase the greatest tragedy of her life. But will Lily’s quest help her find some answers, or will she lose everything in search of a ghost?

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'I first heard about the book from Shyman.
We were at the big annual book sale in the community college gymnasium of Lexington near Gramercy Park. Most book dealers specialized in an area of study: military history, revolutionary literature, modern first editions. I didn't. I specialized in books that interested me and were profitable.' p.1

I went a little further than just the first line because I love what these sentences already tell you about Lily. She has  passion for books, absolutely, but she is motivated most strongly by her need for money, for her need to survive, somehow. Seeing how she developed throughout The Book really got to me!

F56:

'Looking back, I don't understand why I said that. Ok. Sure. Nothing could be less like me than to say, OK. Sure. I was someone who questioned. I was someone who probed. I was someone who looked under rocks and peeked into medicine cabinets. But now I believe the book had its own story, a story it was writing the whole time. We were only characters in it, with no more choice than characters in a novel.' p.56

When I hit this quote I knew I was in for a ride, for something intriguing and thrilling, and still I had no idea of everything Sara Gran had in store for me!

BBH:

This week's question comes from Billy himself:

Do you watch film adaptations of books before reading them?

Ooh, this is one of those ultimate questions, isn't it? One of those questions most of us might have strong opinions about! Technically, my answer is no, in the sense that I would try to read the book first, as long as the book actually interested me or if I realised the film was based on a book. This is in part because my love affair with English literature started because of me wanting to watch a film (the 2005 Pride & Prejudice) and my parents insisting I read the book first. I devoured the rest of Jane Austen's books quickly after and so began the rest of my life, really. So because of that I do, technically, want to read the book before I watch the film.

However... there are certain books I don't necessarily feel the pull to read but which have film adaptations that look excellent. I never read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, because for some reason I never felt like it, but I absolutely adored Park-chan Wook's adaptation The Handmaiden. So it's a bit of a toss-up this week!

That's it from me! What do you think about The Book of the Most Precious Substance?