Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
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Book Reviews of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Book Review: Ex Libris
Summary: 5 Stars
A bookaholic writes about how and why. A great little book to start a book club.Book Review: Wordsmith and Funny!
Summary: 5 Stars
This writer has talent and we get to enjoy the fruits - a taste at a time!Book Review: Ex Libris
Summary: 4 Stars
Though Anne Fadiman's collection of short stories is entitled Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, it is clear that she is not a common reader at all. Fadiman combines humor, grace and eloquence into a group of stories which defines what it means to be a reader. These stories range from tales of compulsive proofreading, to the intricacies of sharing personal libraries to plagiarism. Each of the eighteen stories is intensely personal and yet easy to relate to. Fadiman lets her reader into her intensely academic and at times neurotic mind and enlightens us on something most readers take for granted: the joy of reading. A much more intimate side of Fadiman comes through in these stories, as compared to her novel The Sprit Catches You and You Fall Down and shows the reader an entirely different facet of Fadiman's personality. In the opening story, Marrying Libraries, Fadiman writes on the experience of combining libraries with her husband George. It immediately exposes Fadiman's neurotic, often obsessive and compulsive lifestyle (especially when it comes to books). She describes the process, which took place years after they had been living together and even after they were married, as a chaotic scene played out on their living room floor. The dividing of shelf space, deciding which copy to chose of repeat books, how to organize: chronologically or alphabetically led to, "one of the few times he [ George] has seriously contemplated divorce" (Fadiman 6)
Fadiman writes much of these stories around the character's in her family (who obviously share her great love for reading), namely her husband, father and children. The intimate details woven into her narrative give these stories and essays a tangible, textured feel. Reading, for the love of reading, is a personal, intimate act. We do it in our bedrooms, our sunrooms, our backyards and porches. It is something we share with the people we love and respect most. This is what makes Fadiman's essays on reading great. Instead of making only academic analyses as she has the training and experience to do, she reflects the impact reading, writing and language has on people.
The images used in Ex Libris wonderfully relate the tactile aspects of books and reading. You can smell the musty damp air in Secondhand Prose when she describes a used bookstore through, "indifferent housekeeping, sleeping cats and sufficient organizational chaos" (Fadiman 151). And you can imagine the author's own apartment by, "the several thousand pounds of books already over crowding our shelves" (Fadiman 152). Similarly in The Catalogical Imperative, the reader can see Fadiman and her alter-ego Sadiman riffling through, "catalogues devoted exclusively to salsa, equestrian gear, electric grills, extra-large clothing, extra-small clothing, tours to sites at which UFO's have landed and resin reproductions of medieval gargoyles" much like the various catalogues that land in my mail box every day (Fadiman 114).
In You Are There Fadiman reflects on the "You-Are-There-Reading" reading style that she obviously prefers, Fadiman conveys the importance of place in literature. She relates three stories about being places while reading a book about that particular place. For me, this chapter instantaneously brought back the sound of my dad's voice reading to me from my favorite children's book Paddle to the Sea (about a toy wooden boat navigating its way to the sea through the great lakes) as we edged along the north shore of Lake Superior. She writes about her daughter not reenacting but actually being scenes from Eloise in the Plaza Hotel, an image that would bring back memories for anyone who was a voracious and imaginative reader as a child.
We have entered an age, I believe, in which books play a far less important role in our lives than they once did. Literature is becoming hidden under media that is brighter, louder and faster. Fadiman reminds us of a past time which is richer. Throughout these stories Fadiman fluidly articulates reading's inherent value and the joy that reading can bring. She uses her own experiences with books and intertwines them with memories and emotions, thus bringing this message to her readers. She adds her vast knowledge of literature, history and prose to her love of reading, writing and language to create stories that we as "common readers" could never capture so well.
Book Review: A Common Reader?
Summary: 4 Stars
Although "Ex Libris" is subtitled as the "Confessions of a Common Reader," Anne Fadiman is anything but. If it hadn't been on loan to me, I probably would have recklessly and mercilessly desecrated the margins of this lovely book, while underlining, highlighting, dog-earing, and drooling on every page. In fact, I'm thinking of buying a copy for my private collection so I can do just that. The author is floridly fixated on books, and her fetish extends beyond her library to the bedroom. (She reads in bed. Her husband reads in bed. They read to each other in bed. And then...well, it depends on what they're reading.) But alas, my fervor for this book does not include the author herself. She seems to think that the love of reading and writing is only bestowed on the best of families, like good bones and strong teeth. The more accurate subtitle would be: "Are Bibliophiles Genetically Superior?" I quote: "There must be writers whose parents owned no books, and who were taken under the wing of a neighbor or librarian, but I have never met one." I think she should step out of her rarefied world of Manhattan book publishing and take a look around. I easily googled several of these award-winning unfortunates, some of whom grew up without electricity or running water. For example, the acclaimed Canadian author Roch Carrier, who, in 1999, became the National Librarian of Canada: "It was a heavy oral tradition, we had no books," he said. "So now, as the national librarian, I visit schools and tell students, 'I went from zero books to being in charge of all the country's books. Anything is possible.'" Ms. Fadiman does not seem to know any "common" people, much less common readers. The "high-cotton" careers of her friends, family, co-workers, and classmates are seeded throughout this would-be tome with frightening regularity. How I longed to hear about just one big old good-buddy trucker who took up the pen. Tell me, would he spurn, as Ms. Fadiman's lawyer classmate did, his wife's "silver Tiffany bookmarks because they are a few microns too thick and might leave vestigial stigmata"? With that off my chest, I have to say that although this is clearly a near-pathological case of obsessive-compulsive bibliomania, reading the book creates a charming contagion.Book Review: The charming musings of a fellow-traveller
Summary: 4 Stars
This book made me think that Anne Fadiman would be my new best friend if she lived close enough. Books are in her genetic make-up, obtained from her energetic parents, shared with her affectionate husband, and passed on to her young children.
The book itself consists of a series of short essays on book and reading-related topics: happy arguments between new spouses about how to merge their collections; the peccadillos of how each of us treats books (to bend down a corner or not to bend?), the joys of spelunking in used bookstores; and the like.
Fadiman's prose is charming and articulate, as those readers familiar with her outstanding book "The Spirits Catches You and You Fall Down" will already know. It's a brief and thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours. However, since the book is a set of essays originally published in the magazine "Civilization," the chapters don't GO anywhere; there is no Grand Point or Theme beyond the affection for books.
Fadiman shouldn't be condemned for this, but enjoyed - this book is not an entree but a box of dessert chocolates, delicious if not enough for a full meal.