I read this book alongside two others both of which I am somewhat struggling with, not enough to give up but enough to need a break. The Lover's Dictionary seemed perfect for those purposes. It's an easy read and easy to break up into little chunks so you can just read a page or two as something easy. Despite the fact I was using it as a rest-stop book it's taken me less than 3 days to read, and I think it would only take a couple of hours if read alone. 
 Would I call it a novel? Well I don't know really, although there is certainly a story in there it isn't a novel in the conventional sense, and you need to fill in a lot of gaps yourself. I liked the way it added emotion to words in a way just reading a word doesn't do. There's a certain suggestion that the words one reads are not 'just words' but have a whole other layer of meaning if you are so inclinded to look for them. As a reader it held a certain beauty in the way it approached words but also in the way it would sometimes speak of books and reading. There seemed to be two loves there in a way, the love of a lover, but the love of books was there too. 
 It felt personal and I liked that.