family member: Aniko
book: EX LIBRIS: CONFESSIONS OF A COMMON READER by Anne Fadiman
Brad and I recently took a friend who was visiting us in New York to The Strand . It's a famous used and new bookstore that boasts having over 18 miles of books within its three floors of winding and narrow aisles. Before our friend left, she gave us the one thing that she scoured the store for, a copy of EX LIBRIS as a gift to thank us for housing her. She said that it was her favorite book and, knowing our tastes, she insisted that we would love it too.
I love books. But a book about books? I wasn't interested. I feigned delight, poorly I think, because our friend insisted on reading one of the essays aloud to hook us on the book. Which worked. The book is awesome.
This book is a collection of short essays that Fadiman wrote about reading, words, books, etc, etc. I saw my own excessive love of books and words expressed in some of the essays-- Fadiman writes, humorously (always) about the difficulty she and her husband had in deciding to finally merge (and pare down) their libraries after ten years of living together, needing something to read so badly that she once read a car manual (something which I have certainly done with cereal boxes or instructional manuals), her musings from reading through a book that belonged to her great-great grandmother, the joys of reading aloud-- there are 18 essays altogether.
The essays are perfect to read in snatched pieces of time-- I read during train rides, while the oven warmed up, whenever I had a minute-- and it still went fast.
I highly recommend this book to people who consider themselves to be bibliophiles. It's funny, smart, and will leave you wanting to find more books by Fadiman. (which I did immediately after reading this one.)
get it here: http://www.amazon.com/Ex-Libris-Confessions-Common-Reader/dp/0374527229
Please respond to this post with book suggestions that might match this book, or let us know if you've read EX LIBRIS.
love,
Aniko
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