 |
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Anne Fadiman Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 2000-11-25 ISBN: 0374527229 Number of pages: 176 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Product features:
Book Reviews of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common ReaderBook Review: LOVE LOVE LOVE this book Summary: 5 StarsI don't remember how I stumbled upon this little gem but I'm oh-so-happy I did. This book makes my list of all-time favorites and if you are a lover of words, of language, of the "sweet serenity of books" -- you will see yourself in these brilliantly written pages and add this book to your all-time favorites as well. I agree with the reviewer who said that if Ms. Fadiman lived in closer proximity she would be her new best friend. I may never meet Ms. Fadiman but her book is already my newest and cherished friend.
Summary of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common ReaderAnne Fadiman is--by her own admission--the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over her roommate's 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in the apartment that she had not read at least twice.
This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For Fadiman, as for many passionate readers, the books she loves have become chapters in her own life story. Writing with remarkable grace, she revives the tradition of the well-crafted personal essay, moving easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family. As someone who played at blocks with her father's 22-volume set of Trollope ("My Ancestral Castles") and who only really considered herself married when she and her husband had merged collections ("Marrying Libraries"), she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions, the perverse pleasures of compulsive proof-reading, the allure of long words, and the satisfactions of reading out loud. There is even a foray into pure literary gluttony--Charles Lamb liked buttered muffin crumbs between the leaves, and Fadiman knows of more than one reader who literally consumes page corners. Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists.
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
|
 |
|
|
Preaching the Atonementby Peter Stevenson, Stephen Wright Westminster John Knox Press; Published: 2009-07-13; Paperback; BookBest price: $14.40Price in other shops: $24.95
84, Charing Cross Roadby Helene Hanff Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1990-10-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $7.51Price in other shops: $13.00
A Passion for Books : A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Love and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Booksby Harold Rabinowitz, Rob Kaplan Three Rivers Press; Published: 2001-01-23; Paperback; BookBest price: $212.59
A Book Addict's Treasuryby Lynda Murphy Frances Lincoln; Published: 2007-03-25; Hardcover; BookBest price: $2.98Price in other shops: $16.95
How Reading Changed My Lifeby Anna Quindlen Ballantine Books; Published: 1998-08-25; Paperback; BookBest price: $2.69Price in other shops: $10.00
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Downby Anne Fadiman Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1998-09-28; Paperback; BookBest price: $7.94Price in other shops: $15.00
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a Historyby Lewis Buzbee Graywolf Press; Published: 2008-09-30; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.40Price in other shops: $14.00
Ruined by Reading: A Life in Booksby Lynne Sharon Schwartz Beacon Press; Published: 1997-05-30; Paperback; BookBest price: $2.49Price in other shops: $10.00
Rereadings: Seventeen writers revisit books they loveFarrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2006-09-05; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.96Price in other shops: $13.00
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essaysby Anne Fadiman Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2008-05-27; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.49Price in other shops: $13.00
|