This is the sample xml document :
Everyday Italian
Using the lxml library with an xpath query is possible:
xml="""
Everyday Italian
Giada De Laurentiis
2005
300.00
Harry Potter
J K. Rowling
2005
625.00
"""
from lxml import etree
root = etree.fromstring(xml).getroot()
root.xpath('/bookstore/book/*/text()')
# ['Everyday Italian', 'Giada De Laurentiis', '2005', '300.00', 'Harry Potter', 'J K. Rowling ', '2005', '625.00']
Although you don't get the category....