books tagged “bibliophilia”

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84, Charing Cross Road
by Helene Hanff, Frank Doel, Marks & Co

ISBN 1559211407 (1-55921-140-7)
Hardcover, Moyer Bell Ltd

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Book summary:
84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.
Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much." [via]
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Among the Gently Mad : Perspectives and Strategies for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 0805051597 (0-8050-5159-7)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry

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Book summary:
A field guide for the modern book collector

From the author of A Gentle Madness-a book with more than seventy thousand copies in print that delighted bibliophiles everywhere-comes a twenty-first-century guide to book collecting that deals with both the traditional methods of acquisition and the electronic tools now available on the Internet.

Sharing the superb insight he has gathered from booksellers over the years, Nicholas Basbanes offers a refresher course on the fundamentals that endure, while questioning certain practices of doubtful validity. Topics include how to determine if a book is a first edition, how to spot book club editions, the importance of dust jackets, scouting the flea markets, how to work the book fairs, and the importance of handling the goods, as well as discussing less tangible issues like spotting trends and having a focus. Then he takes a long look at the pros and cons of Internet buying, illuminating how you can use these electronic tools to your advantage and making this the book no modern collector will want to be without.
[via]
More editions of Among the Gently Mad : Perspectives and Strategies for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century:
- Among the Gently Mad : Perspectives and Strategies for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century: ISBN 0805051597 (0-8050-5159-7)
  Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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Among the Gently Mad : Strategies and Perspectives for the Book Hunter in the 21st Century
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 0805074414 (0-8050-7441-4)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry

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Book summary:
From the author of A Gentle Madness , the book that delighted bibliophiles everywhere, comes a twenty-first-century guide to book collecting that deals with both the traditional methods of acquisition and the electronic tools now available on the Internet.

Sharing the superb insight he has gathered from booksellers over the years, Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a refresher course on the fundamentals that endure, while questioning certain practices of doubtful validity. Topics include how to determine if a book is a first edition, how to spot book club editions, the significance of dust jackets, scouting the flea markets, how to work the book fairs, and the importance of handling the goods, as well as discussing less tangible issues like spotting trends and shaping a focus. Then he takes a careful look at Internet buying, pro and con, illuminating how you can use these electronic tools to your advantage, and making this the book no modern collector will want to be without.
[via]
More editions of Among the Gently Mad : Strategies and Perspectives for the Book Hunter in the 21st Century:
- Among the Gently Mad : Strategies and Perspectives for the Book Hunter in the 21st Century: ISBN 0805074414 (0-8050-7441-4)
  Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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The Anatomy of Bibliomania
by Holbrook Jackson

ISBN 0252070437 (0-252-07043-7)
Softcover, Univ of Illinois Pr

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Book summary:
An unmitigated delight for any bibliophile, Holbrook Jackson's "Anatomy of Bibliomania" is the cornerstone of his indispensable trio of books on 'the usefulness, purpose, and pleasures that proceed from books'. "The Anatomy of Bibliomania" begins at the beginning, when books first started to appear, and gives book lovers the solace and company of book lovers from ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and the Romantics. Jackson inspects the allure of books, their curative and restorative properties, and the passion for them that leads to bibliomania ('a genial mania, less harmful than the sanity of the sane'). With deliciously understated wit, he comments on why we read, where we read - on journeys, at mealtimes, on the toilet (this has 'a long but mostly unrecorded history'), in bed, and in prison - and what happens to us when we read. He touches on bindings, bookworms, libraries, and the sport of book hunting, as well as the behavior of borrowers, embezzlers, thieves, and collectors. Francis Bacon, Anatole France, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Leigh Hunt, Marcel Proust, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, and scores of other luminaries chime in on books and their love for them. Unlike most manias, bibliomania is an ennobling affliction, worth cultivating, improving, and enjoying to its heights and depths. Entertaining as well as instructive, "The Anatomy of Bibliomania" is a book no book lover - and certainly no bibliomaniac - can afford to be without. [via]
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Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction
by Tom Raabe, Craig McFarland Brown

ISBN 1555910807 (1-55591-080-7)
Softcover, Fulcrum Publishing

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Book summary:
This humorous tenth-anniversary edition brings book addiction out of the closet.
[via]
More editions of Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction:
- Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction: ISBN 1555912400 (1-55591-240-0)
  Softcover, Fulcrum Pub
- Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction: ISBN 1555910807 (1-55591-080-7)
  Softcover, Fulcrum Publishing
Bizarre Books
by Russell Ash, Brian Lake

ISBN 186205102X (1-86205-102-X)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square

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More editions of Bizarre Books:
- Bizarre Books: ISBN 0312082509 (0-312-08250-9)
  Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
- Bizarre Books: ISBN 186205102X (1-86205-102-X)
  Softcover, Trafalgar Square
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Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason
by Nancy Pearl

ISBN 1570613818 (1-57061-381-8)
Softcover, Sasquatch Books

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Book summary:
What to read next is every book lover's greatest dilemma. Nancy Pearl comes to the rescue with this wide-ranging and fun guide to the best reading new and old. Pearl, who inspired legions of litterateurs with "What If All (name the city) Read the Same Book," has devised reading lists that cater to every mood, occasion, and personality. These annotated lists cover such topics as mother-daughter relationships, science for nonscientists, mysteries of all stripes, African-American fiction from a female point of view, must-reads for kids, books on bicycling, "chick-lit," and many more. Pearl's enthusiasm and taste shine throughout. [via]
More editions of Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason:
- Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason: ISBN 1570613818 (1-57061-381-8)
  Softcover, Sasquatch Books
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The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You Will Never Read
by Stuart Kelly

ISBN 1400062977 (1-4000-6297-7)
Hardcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
In an age when deleted scenes from Adam Sandler movies are saved, its sobering to realize that some of the worlds greatest prose and poetry has gone missing. This witty, wry, and unique new book rectifies that wrong. Part detective story, part history lesson, part exposé, The Book of Lost Books is the first guide to literatures what-ifs and never-weres.
In compulsively readable fashion, Stuart Kelly reveals details about tantalizing vanished works by the famous, the acclaimed, and the influential, from the time of cave drawings to the late twentieth century. Here are the true stories behind stories, poems, and plays that now exist only in imagination:

·Aristophanes Heracles, the Stage Manager was one of the playwrights several spoofs that disappeared.
·Loves Labours Won may have been a sequel to Shakespeares Loves Labours Lostor was it just an alternative title for The Taming of the Shrew?
·Jane Austens incomplete novel Sanditon, was a critique of hypochondriacs and cures started when the author was fatally ill.
·Nikolai Gogol burned the second half of Dead Souls after a religious conversion convinced him that literature was paganism.
·Some of the thousand pages of William Burroughss original Naked Lunch were stolen and sold on the street by Algerian street boys.
·Sylvia Plaths widower, Ted Hughes, claimed that the 130 pages of her second novel, perhaps based on their marriage, were lost after her death.

Whether destroyed (Socrates versions of Aesops Fables), misplaced (Malcolm Lowrys Ultramarine was pinched from his publishers car), interrupted by the authors death (Robert Louis Stevensons Weir of Hermiston), or simply never begun (Vladimir Nabokovs Speak, America, a second volume of his memoirs), these missing links create a history of literature for a parallel world. Civilized and satirical, erudite yet accessible, The Book of Lost Books is itself a find. [via]
More editions of The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You Will Never Read:
- The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You Will Never Read: ISBN 1400062977 (1-4000-6297-7)
  Hardcover, Random House Inc
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The Book on the Bookshelf
by Henry Petroski

ISBN 0375706399 (0-375-70639-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
Consider the book. Though Goodnight Moon and Finnegans Wake differ considerably in content and intended audience, they do share some basic characteristics. They have pages, they're roughly the same shape, and whether in a bookstore, library, or private home, they are generally stored vertically on shelves. Indeed, this is so much the norm that in these days of high-tech printing presses and chain bookstores, it's easy to believe that the book, like the cockroach, remains much the same as it ever was. But as Henry Petroski makes abundantly clear in Book on the Bookshelf, books as we know them have had a long and complex evolution. Indeed, he takes us from the scroll to the codex to the hand-lettered illuminated texts that were so rare and valuable they were chained to lecterns to prevent theft. Along the way he provides plenty of amusing anecdotes about libraries (according to one possibly apocryphal account, the library at Alexandria borrowed the works of the great Greek authors from Athens, had them copied, and then sent the copies back, keeping the originals), book collectors, and the care of books.
Book-lover though he may be, however, Henry Petroski is, first and foremost, an engineer and so, in the end, it is the evolution of bookshelves even more than of books that fascinates him. Pigeonholes for scrolls, book presses containing thousands of chained volumes, rotating lecterns that allowed scholars to peruse more than one book at a time--these are just a few of the ingenious methods readers have devised over the centuries for storing their books: "in cabinets beneath the desks, on shelves in front of them, in triangular attic-like spaces formed under the back-to-back sloped surfaces of desktops or small tabletop lecterns that rested upon a horizontal surface." Placing books vertically on shelves, spines facing outward, is a fairly recent invention, it would seem. Well written as it is, if Book on the Bookshelf were only about books-as-furniture, it would have little appeal to the general reader. Petroski, however, uses this treatise on design to examine the very human motivations that lie behind it. From the example of Samuel Pepys, who refused to have more titles than his library could hold (about 3,000), to an appendix detailing all the ways people organize their collections (by sentimental value, by size, by color, and by price, to name a few of the more unconventional methods), Petroski peppers his account with enough human interest to keep his audience reading from cover to cover. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of The Book on the Bookshelf:
- The Book on the Bookshelf: ISBN 0375406492 (0-375-40649-2)
  Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
- The Book on the Bookshelf: ISBN 0375706399 (0-375-70639-9)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
Booked to Die
by John Dunning

ISBN 1416513221 (1-4165-1322-1)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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- Booked to Die: ISBN 1416513221 (1-4165-1322-1)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
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The Bookman's Promise
by John Dunning

ISBN 1416513205 (1-4165-1320-5)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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More editions of The Bookman's Promise:
- The Bookman's Promise: ISBN 158547455X (1-58547-455-X)
  Hardcover, Center Point Pub
- The Bookman's Promise: ISBN 1416513205 (1-4165-1320-5)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
The Bookman's Wake
by John Dunning

ISBN 141651323X (1-4165-1323-X)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
Denver cop-turned-bookdealer Cliff Janeway is lured by an enterprising fellow ex-policeman into going to Seattle to bring back a fugitive wanted for assault, burglary, and the possible theft of a priceless edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." The bail jumper turns out to be a vulnerable young woman calling herself Eleanor Rigby, who is also a gifted book finder. Janeway is intrigued by the woman -- and by the deadly history surrounding the rare volume. Hunted by people willing to kill for the antique tome, a terrified Eleanor escapes and disappears. To find her -- and save her -- Janeway must unravel the secrets of the book's past and its mysterious maker, for only then can he stop the hand of death from turning another page.... [via]
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Booknotes: America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas
by Brian Lamb

ISBN 0812930290 (0-8129-3029-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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- Booknotes: America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas: ISBN 0812930290 (0-8129-3029-0)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning and Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles and Other Bookshop Junkies
by Larry Portzline

ISBN 0975893408 (0-9758934-0-8)
Softcover, Bookshop Junkie Press

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More editions of Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning and Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles and Other Bookshop Junkies:
- Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning and Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles and Other Bookshop Junkies: ISBN 0975893408 (0-9758934-0-8)
  Softcover, Bookshop Junkie Press
The Bookwoman's Last Fling: A Cliff Janeway Novel
by John Dunning

ISBN 1416523391 (1-4165-2339-1)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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- The Bookwoman's Last Fling: A Cliff Janeway Novel: ISBN 1416523391 (1-4165-2339-1)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read
by Andre Schiffrin

ISBN 1859847633 (1-85984-763-3)
Hardcover, Verso Books

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Book summary:
A riveting chronicle of the rise and fall of the American reader.Village Voice
Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since Andre Schiffrin joined its ranks in 1956. Gone is a plethora of small but prestigious houses that often put ideas before profit in their publishing decisions, sometimes even deliberately. Now six behemoths share 80% of the market and profit margin is all.

Andre Schiffrin can write about these changes with authority because he witnessed them from inside a conglomerate, as head of Pantheon, co-founded by his father, bought (and sold) by Random House. And he can write about them with candor because he is no longer on the inside, having quit corporate publishing in disgust to set up a flourishing independent house, The New Press. Schiffrin's evident affection for his authors sparkles throughout a story woven around publishing the work of those such as Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Juliet Mitchell, R. D. Laing, Eric Hobsbawm and E.P.Thompson.

Part-memoir, part-history, here is an account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing that is irascible, acute and passionate. An engaging counterpoint to recent, celebratory memoirs of the industry written by those with more stock options and fewer scruples than Schiffrin, The Business of Books warns of the danger to adventurous, intelligent publishing in the bullring of today's marketplace. [via]
More editions of The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read:
- The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read: ISBN 185984362X (1-85984-362-X)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The Business of Books : How the International Conglomerates Took over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read: ISBN 1859847633 (1-85984-763-3)
  Hardcover, Verso Books
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Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers
by Bern Marcowitz, Margot Rosenberg

ISBN 0312326033 (0-312-32603-3)
Softcover, Griffin

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Book summary:
Here at last is a short, simple, inexpensive guide to the tricks of the trade regarding how to take care of your beloved books. Written by a pair of booksellers, this little gem emphasizes household products and simple methods.
[via]
More editions of Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers:
- Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers: ISBN 0312300670 (0-312-30067-0)
  Hardcover, Thomas Dunne Books
- The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers: ISBN 0312326033 (0-312-32603-3)
  Softcover, Griffin
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Careers for Bookworms & Other Literary Types
by Marjorie Eberts, Margaret Gisler

ISBN 0071390316 (0-07-139031-6)
Softcover, McGraw-Hill

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Book summary:
Careers For. . . * VARIETY OF CAREERS SHOWN. From the obvious to the obscure, readers will be able to explore careers that match their interests. * CAREER PROFILES. Includes complete job descriptions and salary ranges. * PROFESSIONAL INTERVIEWS. Allow student to see what jobs are really like and what it took to get them. * PROVEN GUIDELINES. Help students understand what it takes to get the job of their dreams and the steps to get there. [via]
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The Club Dumas
by Arturo Perez-Reverte

ISBN 8420481025 (84-204-8102-5)
Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc

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Book summary:
Lucas Corso is a bibliophilic mercenary in the middle to two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned with the printer in 1667, and of which only two other copies are known. The mystery leads him from the Holy Office to books condemned by the Vatican; from dusty old bookstores to the most select libraries owned by important international collectors.
Description in Spanish: Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que sólo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtió para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capítulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. "El club Dumas" (1993), una de las novelas más emblemáticas del autor, constituye un modelo ejemplar de utilización de los más genuinos ingredientes de la novela de intriga, de investigación criminal, ambientación histórica y ficción culturalista, además de ser un homenaje al maestro del folletín decimonónico, Alejandro Dumas. Esta novela ha sido llevada a la gran pantalla por Roman Polanski con el título "La novena puerta". [via]
More editions of The Club Dumas:
- The Club Dumas: ISBN 8420481025 (84-204-8102-5)
  Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc
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El Club Dumas
by Perez Reverte

ISBN 9681903862 (968-19-0386-2)
Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc

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Book summary:
Lucas Corso is a bibliophilic mercenary in the middle to two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned with the printer in 1667, and of which only two other copies are known. The mystery leads him from the Holy Office to books condemned by the Vatican; from dusty old bookstores to the most select libraries owned by important international collectors.
Description in Spanish: Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que sólo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtió para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capítulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. "El club Dumas" (1993), una de las novelas más emblemáticas del autor, constituye un modelo ejemplar de utilización de los más genuinos ingredientes de la novela de intriga, de investigación criminal, ambientación histórica y ficción culturalista, además de ser un homenaje al maestro del folletín decimonónico, Alejandro Dumas. Esta novela ha sido llevada a la gran pantalla por Roman Polanski con el título "La novena puerta". [via]
More editions of El Club Dumas:
- El Club Dumas: ISBN 9681903862 (968-19-0386-2)
  Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc
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Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
by Anne Fadiman

ISBN 0374527229 (0-374-52722-9)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux

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Book summary:
The subtitle of Anne Fadiman's slim collection of essays is Confessions of a Common Reader, but if there is one thing Fadiman is not, it's common. In her previous work of nonfiction, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, she brought both skill and empathy to her balanced exploration of clashing cultures and medical tragedy. The subject matter here is lighter, but imbued with the same fine prose and big heart. Ex Libris is an extended love letter to language and to the wonders it performs. Fadiman is a woman who loves words; in "The Joy of Sesquipedalians" (very long words), she describes an entire family besotted with them: "When I was growing up, not only did my family walk around spouting sesquipedalians, but we viewed all forms of intellectual competition as a sacrament, a kind of holy water as it were, to be slathered on at every opportunity." From very long words it's just a short jump to literature, and Fadiman speaks joyfully of books, book collecting, and book ownership ("In my view, nineteen pounds of old books are at least nineteen times as delicious as one pound of fresh caviar"). In "Marrying Libraries" Fadiman describes the emotionally fraught task of merging her collection with her husband's: "After five years of marriage and a child, George and I finally resolved that we were ready for the more profound intimacy of library consolidation. It was unclear, however, how we were to find a meeting point between his English-garden approach and my French-garden one." Perhaps some marriages could not have stood the strain of such an ordeal, but for this one, the merging of books becomes a metaphor for the solidity of their relationship.
Over the course of 18 charming essays Fadiman ranges from the "odd shelf" ("a small, mysterious corpus of volumes whose subject matter is completely unrelated to the rest of the library, yet which, upon closer inspection reveals a good deal about its owner") to plagiarism ("the more I've read about plagiarism, the more I've come to think that literature is one big recycling bin") to the pleasures of reading aloud ("When you read silently, only the writer performs. When you read aloud, the performance is collaborative"). Fadiman delivers these essays with the expectation that her readers will love and appreciate good books and the power of language as much as she does. Indeed, reading Ex Libris is likely to bring up warm memories of old favorites and a powerful urge to revisit one's own "odd shelf" pronto. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader:
- Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader: ISBN 0374148600 (0-374-14860-0)
  Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
- Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader: ISBN 0374527229 (0-374-52722-9)
  Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde

ISBN 0142001805 (0-14-200180-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Penzler Pick, January 2002: When I first heard the premise of this unique mystery, I doubted that a first-time author could pull off a complicated caper involving so many assumptions, not the least of which is a complete suspension of disbelief. Jasper Fforde is not only up to the task, he exceeds all expectations.
Imagine this. Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The Crimean War has dragged on for more than 130 years and Wales is self-governing. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens' enduring love of literature. And the Third Most Wanted criminal, Acheron Hades, is stealing characters from England's cherished literary heritage and holding them for ransom.
Bibliophiles will be enchanted, but not surprised, to learn that stealing a character from a book only changes that one book, but Hades has escalated his thievery. He has begun attacking the original manuscripts, thus changing all copies in print and enraging the reading public. That's why Special Operations Network has a Literary Division, and it is why one of its operatives, Thursday Next, is on the case.
Thursday is utterly delightful. She is vulnerable, smart, and, above all, literate. She has been trying to trace Hades ever since he stole Mr. Quaverley from the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and killed him. You will only remember Mr. Quaverley if you read Martin Chuzzlewit prior to 1985. But now Hades has set his sights on one of the plums of literature, Jane Eyre, and he must be stopped.
How Thursday achieves this and manages to preserve one of the great books of the Western canon makes for delightfully hilarious reading. You do not have to be an English major to be pulled into this story. You'll be rooting for Thursday, Jane, Mr. Rochester--and a familiar ending. --Otto Penzler [via]
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Frontier Lawmen
by Lee Paul

ISBN 0965792951 (0-9657929-5-1)
Softcover, Jona Books

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More editions of Frontier Lawmen:
- Frontier Lawmen: ISBN 0965792951 (0-9657929-5-1)
  Softcover, Jona Books
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A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 0805061762 (0-8050-6176-2)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co

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Book summary:
What a delightful book about books and people who love books! As a second generation bibliophile, a possible bibliomane who had several people move out of my house a year ago because they erroneously believed that my books were taking over the household, and a devout employee of "Earth's Biggest Bookstore," I can vouch that Basbanes accurately describes the glorious role of book collectors as archivists of human knowledge, and -- in continual counterpoint -- sometimes pathologically obsessed book junkies. [via]
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The Haunted Bookshop
by Christopher Morley

ISBN 1426411170 (1-4264-1117-0)
Softcover, Bibliobazaar

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Book summary:
Comparison Of Cultures Of England And America By English Lad Who Emigrates To Maryland. [via]
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A History of Reading
by Alberto Manguel

ISBN 0140166548 (0-14-016654-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
A history of reading presents tales of book thieves, book burners, censors, anarchists, women of eleventh century Japan who had to invent their own reading material, and African-American slaves who were forbidden to read under penalty of death. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. [via]
More editions of A History of Reading:
- A History of Reading: ISBN 0670843024 (0-670-84302-4)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
- A History of Reading: ISBN 0140166548 (0-14-016654-8)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Know-it-all: One Man's Humble Quest To Become The Smartest Person In The World
by A. J. Jacobs

ISBN 0743250621 (0-7432-5062-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
33,000 pages
44 million words
10 billion years of history
1 obsessed man
Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.
To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but, shall we say, unconvinced.
With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child.
The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions and a soul-searching, ultimately touching struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom. [via]
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The Little Guide to Your Well-read Life: How to get more books in your life and more life from your books
by Steve Leveen

ISBN 1929154178 (1-929154-17-8)
Hardcover, Levenger Pr

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Book summary:
"Perfect for all of us who can never get enough time with good books. It not only urges us to indulge deeply and often, it shows us how."-Myra Hart, professor, Harvard Business School

"Readers and want-to-be readers will be encouraged by the advice to read more, more widely and more systematically."-Michael Keller, university librarian, Stanford University

"An ideal gift for both sporadic and relentless readers."-James Mustich Jr., publisher of A Common Reader

"A worthy addition to even the most well-stocked personal library."-Ross King, author of Michelangelo & The Pope's Ceiling

Do not set out to live a well-read life but rather your well-read life. No one can be well-read using someone else's reading list. Unless a book is good for you, you won't connect with it and gain from it. Just as no one can tell you how to lead your life, no one can tell you what to read for your life.

How do readers find more time to read? In The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, Steve Leveen offers both inspiration and practical advice for bibliophiles on how to get more books in their life and more life from their books.

His recommendations are disarmingly refreshing, as when he advises when not to read a book and why not to feel guilty if you missed reading all those classics in school. He helps readers reorganize their bookshelves into a Library of Candidates that they actively build and a Living Library of books read with enthusiasm, and he emphasizes the value of creating a Bookography, or annotated list of your reading life. Separate chapters are devoted to the power of audio books and the merits of reading groups.

The author himself admits he came "late to the bookshelf," making this charming little guide all the more convincing.
[via]
More editions of The Little Guide to Your Well-read Life: How to get more books in your life and more life from your books:
- The Little Guide to Your Well-read Life: How to get more books in your life and more life from your books: ISBN 1929154178 (1-929154-17-8)
  Hardcover, Levenger Pr
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Lost in a Good Book
by Jasper Fforde

ISBN 0142004030 (0-14-200403-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible? Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? and why? [via]
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Parnassus on Wheels
by Christopher Morley

ISBN 1587155915 (1-58715-591-5)
Softcover, Wildside Pr

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Book summary:
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. [via]
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Passion for Books
by Harold Rabinowitz, Rob Kaplan, Ray Bradbury

ISBN 0812931130 (0-8129-3113-0)
Softcover, Three Rivers Pr

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Book summary:
"When I have a little money, I buy books. And if any is left, I buy food and clothing."
--Desiderius Erasmus

Those who share Erasmus's love of those curious bundles of paper bound together between hard or soft covers know exactly how he felt. These are the people who can spend hours browsing through a bookstore, completely oblivious not only to the passage of time but to everything else around them, the people for whom buying books is a necessity, not a luxury. A Passion for Books is a celebration of that love, a collection of sixty classic and contemporary essays, stories, lists, poems, quotations, and cartoons on the joys of reading, appreciating, and collecting books.

This enriching collection leads off with science-fiction great Ray Bradbury's Foreword, in which he remembers his penniless days pecking out Fahrenheit 451 on a rented typewriter, conjuring up a society so frightened of art that it burns its books. This struggle--financial and creative--led to his lifelong love of all books, which he hopes will cosset him in his grave, "Shakespeare as a pillow, Pope at one elbow, Yeats at the other, and Shaw to warm my toes. Good company for far-travelling."

Booklovers will also find here a selection of writings by a myriad of fellow sufferers from bibliomania. Among these are such contemporary authors as Philip Roth, John Updike, Umberto Eco, Robertson Davies, Nicholas Basbanes, and Anna Quindlen; earlier twentieth-century authors Chris-topher Morley, A. Edward Newton, Holbrook Jackson, A.S.W. Rosenbach, William Dana Orcutt, Robert Benchley, and William Targ; and classic authors such as Michel de Montaigne, Gustave Flaubert, Petrarch, and Anatole France.

Here also are entertaining and humorous lists such as the "Ten Best-Selling Books Rejected by Publishers Twenty Times or More," the great books included in Clifton Fadiman and John Major's New Lifetime Reading Plan, Jonathan Yardley's "Ten Books That Shaped the American Character," "Ten Memorable Books That Never Existed," "Norman Mailer's Ten Favorite American Novels," and Anna Quindlen's "Ten Big Thick Wonderful Books That Could Take You a Whole Summer to Read (but Aren't Beach Books)."

Rounding out the anthology are selections on bookstores, book clubs, and book care, plus book cartoons, and a specially prepared "Bibliobibliography" of books about books.

Whether you consider yourself a bibliomaniac or just someone who likes to read, A Passion for Books will provide you with a lifetime's worth of entertaining, informative, and pleasurable reading on your favorite subject--the love of books.

A Sampling of the Literary Treasures in A Passion for Books

  Umberto Eco's "How to Justify a Private Library," dealing with the question everyone with a sizable library is inevitably asked: "Have you read all these books?"

  Anatole Broyard's "Lending Books," in which he notes, "I feel about lending a book the way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock."

  Gustave Flaubert's Bibliomania, the classic tale of a book collector so obsessed with owning a book that he is willing to kill to possess it.

   A selection from Nicholas Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, on the innovative arrangements Samuel Pepys made to guarantee that his library would survive "intact" after his demise.

  Robert Benchley's "Why Does Nobody Collect Me"--in which he wonders why first editions of books by his friend Ernest Hemingway are valuable while his are not, deadpanning "I am older than Hemingway and have written more books than he has."

  George Hamlin Fitch's extraordinarily touching "Comfort Found in Good Old Books," on the solace he found in books after the death of his son.

  A selection from Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life, in which she shares her optimistic view on the role of reading and the future of books in the computer age.

  Robertson Davies's "Book Collecting," on the difference between those who collect rare books because they're valuable and those who collect them because they love books, ultimately making it clear which is "the collector who really matters." [via]
More editions of Passion for Books:
- Passion for Books: ISBN 0812931122 (0-8129-3112-2)
  Hardcover, Random House Inc
- Passion for Books: ISBN 0812931130 (0-8129-3113-0)
  Softcover, Three Rivers Pr
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A Passion for Books
by Dale Salwak

ISBN 0312218842 (0-312-21884-2)
Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan

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Book summary:
Nineteen original essays make up this indispensable guide for anyone who is interested in the past and future of books and the publishing industry. This book is intended as both a celebration of the value and importance of reading and a spirited defense against the many gloomy voices in our so-called electronic age that say the book will soon be obsolete. The essays explore how books shape and nourish our lives; why readers turn to books in the era of cyberspace; whether the book has a future; and the many issues that concern academic publishers who are trying to preserve the book.
[via]
More editions of A Passion for Books:
- A Passion for Books: ISBN 0312218842 (0-312-21884-2)
  Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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A Passion for Books
by Terry W. Glaspey

ISBN 1565077814 (1-56507-781-4)
Hardcover, Harvest House Pub

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- A Passion for Books: ISBN 1565077814 (1-56507-781-4)
  Hardcover, Harvest House Pub
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Patience & Fortitude
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 0060514469 (0-06-051446-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
In his national bestseller, A Gentle Madness, Nicholas Basbanes explored the sweet obsession people feel to possess books. Now, Basbanes continues his adventures among the "gently mad" on an irresistible journey to the great libraries of the past -- from Alexandria to Glastonbury -- and to contemporary collections at the Vatican, Wolfenbüttel, and erudite universities. Along the way, he drops in on eccentric book dealers and regales us with stories about unforgettable collectors, such as the gentleman who bought a rare book in 1939 "by selling bottles of his own blood."
Taking the book's grand title from the marble lions guarding the New York Public Library at 42nd Street, Basbanes both entertains and delights. And once again, as Scott Turow aptly noted, "Basbanes makes you love books, the collections he writes about, and the volume in your hand."
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- Patience & Fortitude: ISBN 0060514469 (0-06-051446-9)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 0060196955 (0-06-019695-5)
Hardcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
A roving chronicle of book people, book places and book culture. [via]
More editions of Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture:
- Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture: ISBN 0060196955 (0-06-019695-5)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Polysyllabic Spree
by Nick Hornby

ISBN 1932416242 (1-932416-24-2)
Softcover, McSweeneys Books

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Book summary:
In his monthly column "Stuff I've Been Reading," Hornby lists the books he's purchased that month, and briefly discusses the books he's actually read.

NIck Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree Includes selected passages from the novels, biographies, collections of poetry, and comics discussed in the column.

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More editions of The Polysyllabic Spree:
- The Polysyllabic Spree: ISBN 1932416242 (1-932416-24-2)
  Softcover, McSweeneys Books
A Pound Of Paper: Confessions Of A Book Addict
by John Baxter

ISBN 0312317263 (0-312-31726-3)
Softcover, Griffin

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More editions of A Pound Of Paper: Confessions Of A Book Addict:
- A Pound Of Paper: Confessions Of A Book Addict: ISBN 0312317255 (0-312-31725-5)
  Hardcover, St Martins Pr
- A Pound Of Paper: Confessions Of A Book Addict: ISBN 0312317263 (0-312-31726-3)
  Softcover, Griffin
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Ruined by Reading
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

ISBN 0807070823 (0-8070-7082-3)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin

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Book summary:
From the author of the acclaimed novels Disturbances in the Field and The Fatigue Artist, this wonderfully written and enchanting meditation explores what the act of reading means--an act that is in danger of being lost today. Lynne Sharon Schwartz of course isn't "ruined" by reading anymore than Tarzan was by apes; it's her life. She was a child prodigy who, beginning at age 3, was summoned to read for guests and has been immersed in the written word ever since, developing into a writer and novelist. In this essay she defends the magic of reading and its place in the development of the mind and ideas. "There is good reason for the addictive cravings of readers. The only thing new under the sun is the sound of another voice," she writes. [via]
More editions of Ruined by Reading:
- Ruined by Reading: ISBN 0807070823 (0-8070-7082-3)
  Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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Ruined by Reading : A Life in Books
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

ISBN 0807070831 (0-8070-7083-1)
Softcover, Beacon Press

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Book summary:
From the author of the acclaimed novels Disturbances in the Field and The Fatigue Artist, this wonderfully written and enchanting meditation explores what the act of reading means--an act that is in danger of being lost today. Lynne Sharon Schwartz of course isn't "ruined" by reading anymore than Tarzan was by apes; it's her life. She was a child prodigy who, beginning at age 3, was summoned to read for guests and has been immersed in the written word ever since, developing into a writer and novelist. In this essay she defends the magic of reading and its place in the development of the mind and ideas. "There is good reason for the addictive cravings of readers. The only thing new under the sun is the sound of another voice," she writes. [via]
More editions of Ruined by Reading : A Life in Books:
- Ruined by Reading : A Life in Books: ISBN 0807070831 (0-8070-7083-1)
  Softcover, Beacon Press
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Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books
by Paul Collins

ISBN 1582344043 (1-58234-404-3)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Publishing

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Book summary:
A bibliophile's pilgrimage to where book lovers go when they die-Hay-on-Wye.

Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the 'Town of Books' that boasts fifteen hundress inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Antiquarian bookstores, no less.

Hay's newest citizens accordingly take up residence in a sixteenth-century apartment over a bookstore, meeting the village's large population of misfits and bibliomaniacs by working for world-class eccentric Richard Booth-the self-declared King of Hay, owner of the local castle, and proprietor of the world's largest and most chaotic used book warren. A useless clerk, Paul delights in shifting dusty stacks of books around and sifting them for ancient gems like Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable, Confessions of an Author's Wife, and I Was Hitler's Maid. He also duly fulfills his new duty as a citizen by simultaneously applying to be a Peer in the House of Lords and attempting to buy Sixpence House, a beautiful and neglected old tumbledown pub for sale in the town's center.

Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of his own book, Sixpence House becomes a meditation on what books means to us, and how their meaning can still resonate long after they have been abandoned by their public. Even as he's writing, the knowledge of where his work will eventually end up-rubbing bindings with the rest of the books that time forgot-is a curious kind of comfort.
[via]
More editions of Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books:
- Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books: ISBN 1582342849 (1-58234-284-9)
  Hardcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
- Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books: ISBN 1582344043 (1-58234-404-3)
  Softcover, Bloomsbury Publishing
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Slightly Chipped : Footnotes in Booklore
by Lawrence Goldstone, Nancy Goldstone

ISBN 0312263953 (0-312-26395-3)
Softcover, St. Martin's Press

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Book summary:
Who would have guessed that an innocent search for an inexpensive edition of War and Peace could lead to an all-consuming obsession? Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone's romance with rare books arose from just such a search and led them to a world they had never encountered before: the world of antiquarian books. They quickly found themselves infatuated with this quaint and curious world, and scoured the East Coast in search of first editions and rare books. This search, and the curious people they met along the way, is chronicled in their book Used and Rare. Their second book, Slightly Chipped, continues this exploration, taking us on tours of book fairs, libraries, and auctions. No longer the wide-eyed innocents, the Goldstones delve a little deeper into the book world: they explore facets such as fine printing and literary movements, pour over Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula, and puzzle over the incredible markup of hypermoderns. (Never heard of hypermoderns? They are collectible books recently published. A first edition of Sue Grafton's A Is for Alibi sold for $1,250 in 1998. Better check your shelves.)
Both the avid bibliophile and the casual reader will find things to enjoy in Slightly Chipped. For the collector, the Goldstones' discussion of the Internet's impact on collecting is illuminating, and their look at the hypermodern market is positively eye-opening. Plus, visits to such places as the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia and the Pequot Library in Connecticut will get any bibliophile's salivary glands going. For the casual reader, Slightly Chipped is as warm and engaging as Used and Rare; although the Goldstones have become sophisticated book collectors, there is still plenty of the ingenuous surprise and delight that made Used and Rare such a joy to read. They balance out the serious aspects of book collecting with a liberal peppering of literary anecdotes, ranging from William Morris's tyrannical leadership of the Kelmscott Press to the sexual proclivities of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, keeping the tone light and the pace lively. All this packed into one volume makes Slightly Chipped a rare treat for book lovers of all types. --Perry Atterberry [via]
More editions of Slightly Chipped : Footnotes in Booklore:
- Slightly Chipped : Footnotes in Booklore: ISBN 0312263953 (0-312-26395-3)
  Softcover, St. Martin's Press
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Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore
by Nancy Goldstone, Lawrence Goldstone

ISBN 0312205872 (0-312-20587-2)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Who would have guessed that an innocent search for an inexpensive edition of War and Peace could lead to an all-consuming obsession? Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone's romance with rare books arose from just such a search and led them to a world they had never encountered before: the world of antiquarian books. They quickly found themselves infatuated with this quaint and curious world, and scoured the East Coast in search of first editions and rare books. This search, and the curious people they met along the way, is chronicled in their book Used and Rare. Their second book, Slightly Chipped, continues this exploration, taking us on tours of book fairs, libraries, and auctions. No longer the wide-eyed innocents, the Goldstones delve a little deeper into the book world: they explore facets such as fine printing and literary movements, pour over Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula, and puzzle over the incredible markup of hypermoderns. (Never heard of hypermoderns? They are collectible books recently published. A first edition of Sue Grafton's A Is for Alibi sold for $1,250 in 1998. Better check your shelves.)
Both the avid bibliophile and the casual reader will find things to enjoy in Slightly Chipped. For the collector, the Goldstones' discussion of the Internet's impact on collecting is illuminating, and their look at the hypermodern market is positively eye-opening. Plus, visits to such places as the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia and the Pequot Library in Connecticut will get any bibliophile's salivary glands going. For the casual reader, Slightly Chipped is as warm and engaging as Used and Rare; although the Goldstones have become sophisticated book collectors, there is still plenty of the ingenuous surprise and delight that made Used and Rare such a joy to read. They balance out the serious aspects of book collecting with a liberal peppering of literary anecdotes, ranging from William Morris's tyrannical leadership of the Kelmscott Press to the sexual proclivities of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, keeping the tone light and the pace lively. All this packed into one volume makes Slightly Chipped a rare treat for book lovers of all types. --Perry Atterberry [via]
More editions of Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore:
- Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore: ISBN 0312205872 (0-312-20587-2)
  Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance
by Gabriel Zaid, Natasha Wimmer

ISBN 158988003X (1-58988-003-X)
Softcover, Paul Dry Books Inc

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Book summary:
"Reading liberates the reader and transports him from his book to a reading of himself and all of life. It leads him to participate in conversations, and in some cases to arrange them . . . It could even be said that to publish a book is to insert it into the middle of a conversation." (from So Many Books)

Join the conversation! In So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid offers his observations on the literary condition: a highly original analysis of the predicament that readers, authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers find themselves in today--when there are simply more books than any of us can contemplate.
"...Zaid traces the preoccupation with reading back through Dr. Johnson, Seneca, and even the Bible ('Of making many books there is no end'). He emerges as a playful celebrant of literary proliferation, noting that there is a new book published every thirty seconds, and optimistically points out that publishers who moan about low sales 'see as a failure what is actually a blessing: The book business, unlike newspapers, films, or television, is viable on a small scale.' Zaid, who claims to own more than ten thousand books, says he has sometimes thought that 'a chastity glove for authors who cant contain themselves' would be a good idea. Nonetheless, he cheerfully opines that 'the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.'"--The New Yorker

[via]
More editions of So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance:
- So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance: ISBN 158988003X (1-58988-003-X)
  Softcover, Paul Dry Books Inc
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A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 0060580801 (0-06-058080-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
In A Splendor of Letters, Nicholas A. Basbanes continues the lively, richly anecdotal exploration of book people, places, and culture he began in 1995 with A Gentle Madness (a finalist that year for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and expanded in 2001 with Patience & Fortitude, a companion work that prompted the two-time Pulitzer Prizewinning historian and biographer David McCullough to proclaim him "the leading authority of books about books."
Basbanes now offers a consideration of the many pressing issues that surround the role of books in contemporary society, such as the willful destruction of books and libraries in Sarajevo, Tibet, and Cambodia, and the spirited efforts to restore them. The matter of "discards" at various libraries takes on an entirely new dimension as well, with fully researched stories about the kind of attitudes that may lead to the loss of last copies of important works.
In vivid detail, Basbanes examines the many materials that have been used over the centuries to record information -- among them clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, slabs of stone, palm leaves, animal skins, and hammered sheets of gold and copper. Also discussed are the various debates that continue to rage about preservation, which may mean saving and storing books on paper indefinitely, or as electronic data, which are by nature ephemeral.
In this beautifully packaged edition, Nicholas Basbanes brings to a close his wonderful trilogy on the remarkable world of books and bibliophiles.
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More editions of A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World:
- A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World: ISBN 0060082879 (0-06-008287-9)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World: ISBN 0060580801 (0-06-058080-1)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Thursday Next in the Well Of Lost Plots
by Fforde Jasper

ISBN 0143034359 (0-14-303435-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
The third installment in Jasper Fforde's New York Times bestselling series follows literary detective Thursday Next on another adventure in her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England Jasper Fforde has done it again in this genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment. After two rollicking New York Times bestselling adventures through Western literature, resourceful BookWorld literary detective Thursday Next definitely needs some downtime. And what better place for a respite than in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books-like the one she has taken up residence in-are scrapped for salvage. To make matters worse, a murderer is stalking the personnel of Jurisfiction and it's up to Thursday to save the day. A brilliant feat of literary showmanship filled with wit, fantasy, and effervescent originality, this Ffordian tour de force will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse. Thursday's zany investigations continue with Something Rotten. Look for the five other bestselling Thursday Next novels, including One of Our Thursdays is Missing and Jasper Fforde's latest bestseller, The Woman Who Died A Lot. Visit jasperfforde.com for a ffull window into the Ffordian world! [via]
More editions of Thursday Next in the Well Of Lost Plots:
- Thursday Next in the Well Of Lost Plots: ISBN 0143034359 (0-14-303435-9)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Walking a Literary Labyrinth
by Nancy M. Malone

ISBN 1594480028 (1-59448-002-8)
Softcover, Riverhead Books

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Book summary:
Who of us doesnt have a list of books that changed our life? Reflecting on her own reading life, Nancy Malone examines the influence of reading in how we define ourselves. Throughout, she likens the experience of reading to walking a labyrinth, itself a metaphor for our spiritual journey through life. The paths within the labyrinth are not straight, but winding, and in the end, it is not the small circle in the center that defines the self, but the whole grand design of the labyrinthevery experience, every person we meet, and every book we readthat makes us who we are.

Malone draws from diverse sources, both spiritual and secularVirginia Woolf, Saint Augustine, E. E. Cummings, Paul Tillich, Nadine Gordimer, George Herbert, Sue Grafton, Henry James, George Eliot, James Joyce, Patrick OBrien, E. M. Forster, Franz Kafka, Elie Wiesel, Margaret Atwood, and Tom Wolfe, to name a few. Her thoughtful and beautifully articulated examination of influential books takes in a broad range of subjects, including childhood reading; books as sacred objects; reading and social responsibility; dangerous reading, which challenges us to examine our prejudices and beliefs; poetry; and erotic literature. And Malone has compiled a recommended reading list to inspire readers to seek out the unfamiliar or return to old favorites.

In Walking a Literary Labyrinth, Malone invites all us readers, of every religious tradition, or none, to consider the influence of reading in our own liveshow and why particular books stay with us, how they shape us, and how they enlarge our humanity.
[via]
More editions of Walking a Literary Labyrinth:
- Walking a Literary Labyrinth: ISBN 1594480028 (1-59448-002-8)
  Softcover, Riverhead Books
Walking a Literary Labyrinth : A Spirituality of Reading
by Nancy M. Malone-Osu

ISBN 1573222461 (1-57322-246-1)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (Canada)

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More editions of Walking a Literary Labyrinth : A Spirituality of Reading:
- Walking a Literary Labyrinth : A Spirituality of Reading: ISBN 1573222461 (1-57322-246-1)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (Canada)
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The Well of Lost Plots
by Jasper Fforde

ISBN 0340825928 (0-340-82592-8)
Softcover, Hodder & Stoughton

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Book summary:
Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots (the place where all fiction is created), Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled 'Caversham Heights'. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday's memory, and Miss Havisham - when not sewing up plot-holes in 'Mill on the Floss' - is trying to break the land-speed record on the A409. But something is rotten in the state of Jurisfiction. Perkins is 'accidentally' eaten by the minotaur, and Snell succumbs to the Mispeling Vyrus. As a shadow looms over popular fiction, Thursday must keep her wits about her and discover not only what is going on, but also who she can trust to tell about it ...With grammasites, holesmiths, trainee characters, pagerunners, baby dodos and an adopted home scheduled for demolition, 'The Well of Lost Plots' is at once an addictively exciting adventure and an insight into how books are made, who makes them - and why there is no singular for 'scampi'. In the words of one critic: 'Don't ask. Just read it.' [via]
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The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
by Lewis Buzbee

ISBN 1555974503 (1-55597-450-3)
Hardcover, Graywolf Press

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Book summary:
"I cannot remember when I read a book with such delight." --Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookstore

November, a dark, rainy Tuesday, late afternoon. This is my ideal time to be in a bookstore. The shortened light of the afternoon and the idleness and hush of the hour gather everything close, the shelves and the books and the few other customers who graze head-bent in the narrow aisles. I've come to find a book.

In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Buzbee, a former bookseller and sales representative, celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore--the smell and touch of books, getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through The Weekly Reader in grade school. Interwoven throughout is a
fascinating historical account of the bookseller's trade--from the great Alexandria library with an estimated one million papyrus scrolls to Sylvia Beach's famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, which led to the extraordinary effort to publish and sell James Joyce's Ulysses during the 1920s.

Rich with anecdotes, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book.
[via]
More editions of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop:
- The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: ISBN 1555974503 (1-55597-450-3)
  Hardcover, Graywolf Press

Spanish

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El Club Dumas
by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

ISBN 8495501007 (84-95501-00-7)
Hardcover, Suma de Letras, S.L.

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Book summary:
Lucas Corso is a bibliophilic mercenary in the middle to two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned with the printer in 1667, and of which only two other copies are known. The mystery leads him from the Holy Office to books condemned by the Vatican; from dusty old bookstores to the most select libraries owned by important international collectors.
Description in Spanish: Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que sólo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtió para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capítulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. "El club Dumas" (1993), una de las novelas más emblemáticas del autor, constituye un modelo ejemplar de utilización de los más genuinos ingredientes de la novela de intriga, de investigación criminal, ambientación histórica y ficción culturalista, además de ser un homenaje al maestro del folletín decimonónico, Alejandro Dumas. Esta novela ha sido llevada a la gran pantalla por Roman Polanski con el título "La novena puerta". [via]
More editions of El Club Dumas:
- El Club Dumas: ISBN 8495501007 (84-95501-00-7)
  Hardcover, Suma de Letras, S.L.
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El Club Dumas/the Club Dumas: O Lasombra De Richelieu
by Arturo Perez-Reverte

ISBN 8466318313 (84-663-1831-3)
Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc

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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Club Dumas/the Club Dumas: O Lasombra De Richelieu'
Book summary:
Lucas Corso is a bibliophile mercenary in the middle of two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned at the printers in 1667 by the Holy office and condemned by the Vatican; only two other copies are known. The stories intermingle and result in a page-turning thriller distinctive of Perez Reverte s writing. The book was taken to the big screen in a movie titled The Ninth Gate by renowned director Roman Polanski.
Description in Spanish
Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que solo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtio para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capitulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Perez-Reverte. [via]
More editions of El Club Dumas/the Club Dumas: O Lasombra De Richelieu:
- El Club Dumas/the Club Dumas: O Lasombra De Richelieu: ISBN 8466318313 (84-663-1831-3)
  Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc

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