Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

by Anne Fadiman

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1,454 ratings, 4.24 average rating, 310 reviews (more data...)

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published

November 25th 2000 (first published 1999) by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

binding

Paperback, 162 pages

isbn

0374527229 (isbn13: 9780374527228)

description

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...more

[close] 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

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12/27/08

... rated it:

Read in January, 2009

recommended to ... by: M.

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book. There were some essays better than others. The first one, on marrying libraries, being the best. Some of the essays felt a little out of place in the book, but I get why they were there. I wrote some notes and underlined things…here is a brief list of my own confessions.

-I have only met one person in my life that I would consider (discussed) merging libraries with.

-I will call my library organizational style organic and leave it a...more

Like this review? yes (20 people liked it)

8 comments

12/02/07

Abigail rated it:

(review of isbn 0374148600)

bookshelves: books-reading

Read in November, 2007

recommended to Abigail by: Patrick
recommends it for: Bibliophiles or Those Seeking to Understand Them...

Ah hopeful conceit, that borrowing this book would suffice! I ought to have known better, and indeed, after reading Anne Fadiman's entertaining collection of essays, it is clear that I will need to obtain a copy of my own. Such was my sense of recognition when reading some of these pieces, that I get the sense that I will be revisiting this title periodically.

A collection of eighteen short essays devoted to the author's "lifelong love affair with books and language," some o...more Ah hopeful conceit, that borrowing this book would suffice! I ought to have known better, and indeed, after reading Anne Fadiman's entertaining collection of essays, it is clear that I will need to obtain a copy of my own. Such was my sense of recognition when reading some of these pieces, that I get the sense that I will be revisiting this title periodically.

A collection of eighteen short essays devoted to the author's "lifelong love affair with books and language," some of the delights of Ex-Libris include: Fadiman's account of the "marriage" of her library to that of her husband's; the distinction she draws between "courtly" and "carnal" bibliophiles (she classifies herself as one of the latter); the joys of inscriptions (in which I learned that the title page is customarily reserved for the author's signature); and the author's thoughtful discussion of gender issues in language.

Some of the author's bibliophilic idiosyncrasies, such as her incurable penchant for proofreading in any and all situations, and her preference for the "eternal" medium of ink, are quite familiar to me. Others, such as the joy of catalogs, were entirely new. I too can remember paging through the J. Peterman catalog, but my predominant reaction was one of irritation at their classist pretension. Does anyone remember the shirt that was meant to recall those "good old days" when your father put down a peasant revolt? Revolting is the right word!

Her taste for questionable catalogs notwithstanding, I found myself mostly in sympathy with Fadiman, whose essays reveal a wonderful sense of humor, tempered by a deeply-felt humanity. My only true criticism is reserved for the final essay Secondhand Reading, in which I believe the author completely misses the mark on used bookstores. To require that they provide the same sense of personality and intellectual community and cohesion, as would a personal library, is somewhat unreasonable (Heavens! An unreasonable bibliophile?).

It would be like reproaching Grand Central, an institution ineffably linked with all that is transitory in the human experience, with providing the onlooker too brief a glimpse of its travelers' lives. The view of the Grand Concourse may be somewhat overwhelming: looking out at all the many people coming and going, seemingly unrelated, each with a story unfolding behind and before them; but then, it is not meant to be a place of repose. The home, and the personal library, are. In much the same fashion, a used bookstore is merely a way-station through which countless books pass. It is melancholy only because all journeys are melancholy...

Finally, as another reviewer noted, this book provides the basis for a lively and satisfying conversation about the topic so dear to many of the readers here on goodreads. To wit: the beauty of books and the pleasure of reading. For that, I thank Anne Fadiman. I will close by noting (mostly because I couldn't find a way to work it into the main body of my review), that I did indeed know one of the sesqipedalians that so puzzled the author. It was, of course, "grimoire." YES! Finally! Intellectual vindication of my adult enjoyment of juvenile fantasy novels!(less)

Like this review? yes (9 people liked it)

8 comments

07/25/07

Dean rated it:

(review of isbn 0374148600)

I don't put much stock in reading books about other people reading books, or poems about writing poetry--It just doesn't rub me the right way. Ex Libris is no exception. The only interesting point to note is that I am reading this book exclusively in the bathroom while shitting. Sometimes I'll only read a paragraph or maybe just stare at the words on the back cover (we all crave words when we shit---even the back of a shampoo bottle for crissakes) but sometimes I'll take things leisurely and ...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

11/26/07

Kathryn rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Kathryn by: Melanie (thank you!)
recommends it for: book lovers!

I finished this book on my flight home from Florida and it provided me with great pleasure amidst my great dislike of flying. (Perchance I would have given it five stars had I read it from the cozy comfort of the couch in my den!) It felt so chummy to hear Anne's discussion of her love of books (both literary and tactile!) and I found myself nodding with agreement for many of her observations and confessions.

My favorite essays:
Marrying Libraries (of the joys and tribulation...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

5 comments

09/26/07

Natalie rated it:

Read in January, 2002

recommends it for: anyone who loves to read

My aunt Heather recommended this book to me. She is exactly the type of reader Anne Fadiman is and also very frugal. So instead of buying books as gifts for me she mails me short lists of books she thinks I will enjoy and should check out at my local library.
This one was an easy beach read for me one year at Myrtle and then I read it again on a winter break. I later gave it to my cousin-in-law for a gift so I no longer have a copy of it by as I remember them each of the short stories ...more

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01/02/08

Heather rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction, read-in-2008

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: anyone who loves reading

I haven't even finished this book yet, but I need to give it a (glowing) review. I adore this book and I already know I'm going to pick it up time and again through the years to re-read sections of it.

Normally a book of non-fiction essays would send me running to the hills, fiction is my thing and I stick to it 99% of the time. Confessions of a Common Reader is an enjoyable exception to my rule. Ann Fadiman is anything BUT a common reader, she's the reader that we all aspire to be! ...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

2 comments

07/01/08

rivka rated it:

bookshelves: borrowed, non-fiction

Read in March, 2009

recommended to rivka by: Jennie Peterson
recommends it for: all book lovers

I enjoyed this book, but perhaps not nearly as much as some of my friends seem to have. It's always nice to read something that makes me feel that someone out there is like me and/or my family -- that we're not completely crazy! ;)

So reading about another kid who was taught NOT to say "the hoi polloi", someone else who can't help but proofread menus, who is an obsessive book collector -- these are cool.

However. Anne Fadiman has an annoying to tendency to assume...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

22 comments

09/21/07

Lena rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

This short collection of essays on the reading life is a true delight of a book. Anne Fadiman writes with self-depreciating joy about the pleasures and pains of the book obsessed, and reading her confessions helped reawaken (and soothe my guilt) about my own book-related afflictions. Her ruminations on marrying libraries (a task I have not yet been bold enough to undertake with my own husband), the art of inscriptions, and her clever discussion on plagiarism and the originality (or lack thereo...more

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03/28/09

Koji rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in September, 1999

This is a collection of essays first published in Civilization, the magazine of the Library of Congress, which is where I first read many of them. These essays were written by, for, and about booklovers. My favorites include "Never Do That to a Book" where the author discusses two different ways to love a book - "courtly love" in which the reader tries to keep the book in as pristine a state as possible vs. "carnal love" in which the reader does not care a bit abo...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

05/21/07

Lisa Vegan rated it:

(review of isbn 0374148600)

bookshelves: biography, books-about-books, essays, favorites, non-fiction, reviewed, top-100

Read in January, 1998

recommends it for: everyone on goodreads,those who love beautiful language, essays

This is one of my favorite books. The daughter of Clifton Fadiman can write! These are wonderful essays about life, family, and most importantly, about books & reading. All are interesting & written beautifully, and they also have a lot of warmth & humor. This is a book worth owning to be able to reread certain essays every once in a while.

This book is a perfect gift for anyone who enjoys reading, books, and language.

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03/27/09

Michelle rated it:

bookshelves: book-books

Read in April, 2009

This book was WAAY too much fun. Anne Fadiman is Clifton Fadiman's daughter, and she has collected this book of essays about book-love. She is funny and frank and the book is a delight. There are essays on merging her library with her husband's, on the delight of finding long, delicious words, on sonnets, on "carnal-love" book lovers versus "courtly-love" book lovers (for the record, I'm in the carnal-love category--my books know they are loved), ink pens, flyleaf inscript...more

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12/29/08

Kathy rated it:

(review of isbn 0374148600)

Read in March, 2009

I love books that discuss the importance of reading and I appreciate authors who can admit to an obsession with books. "I'd rather have a book, but in a pinch I'll settle for a set of Water Pik instructions."

Fadiman is the child of readers and is continuing this "habit" with her own family.
"Children are "able to fantasize are more extravagantly about their parents' tastes and discuss their aspirations and their vices by scanning their bookcase...more I love books that discuss the importance of reading and I appreciate authors who can admit to an obsession with books. "I'd rather have a book, but in a pinch I'll settle for a set of Water Pik instructions."

Fadiman is the child of readers and is continuing this "habit" with her own family.
"Children are "able to fantasize are more extravagantly about their parents' tastes and discuss their aspirations and their vices by scanning their bookcases than by snooping in their closets. Their selves were on their shelves."

This book is a memoir of sorts about her love of books and language and how the books she has read throughout her life have become an integral part of her life story.

"The heart of reading is not whether we wish to purchase new books, but how we maintain our connection with all our books, even the ones we have lived with for years."
"Over the course of years, events happen. Our books however-even ones printed long ago-remain ageless. Books wrote our life story and as they accumulated on our shelves and on the windowsills and under the sofa, they became chapters in our story."

I didn't really enjoy the chapter on polar exploration books, but I smiled all the way through the chapter on proofreading and grammar.
"The proofreading temperament is part of a larger syndrome with several interrelated symptoms. Alas, there is no 12-step program for us. We must learn to live with our affliction."

There are also just some "ponderings".
"We had promised to love each other for richer anf for poorer, even proising to forsake all others. But it was a good thing that vows didn't say anything about marrying our libraries and throwing out the duplicates. That would have been a more solemn vow."

"Closing a book on a bookmark is lke pressing the stop button whereas when you leave the book open facedown, you've only pressed pause."

This was a short book and it read quickly. Great prose and marvelous vocabulary. I hope to read some the books about books that Fadiman recommends.

(less)

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

4 comments

09/28/08

Corinne rated it:

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: voracious readers

As the child of two incredibly literary parents (both of them writers and voracious readers), Anne Fadiman has written a collection of essays about her experiences with books, and not just reading them. She writes about plagiarism, secondhand stores, vocabulary lovers and the inscriptions we write - all told with a self depriciating and humorous voice.

Every essay entertained me. I'm sure part of that is the fact that I am a fellow lover of not just the written word itself, but the en...more

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2 comments

06/18/08

Ukrainer rated it:

Read in June, 2008

I walked past Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader at the library and immediately turned around. Without reading the dust jacket, I added the book to my pile. Any book about books must be a good book.

After reading Ex Libris, I'm not so sure. The collection of essays is ten years old, and they already feel dated—particularly an essay about pens and typewriters. More than anything, though, I take umbrage with the subtitle. Fadiman is anything but the “common r...more

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03/28/08

Sydney rated it:

Read in May, 2008

Parts of this book are utterly delightful. The chapters on combining libraries (first that of her husband and her own after ten years of marriage, later on with her father's) get to how visceral and symbolic a love a books can be. There is also the chapter on how the first thing she used to do with books (her parents') was build castles. All refreshing. But then there were moments where I thought she was Joyce Chafen (the ghastly, oblivous mother in White Teeth) particularly with Fadiman U. ...more

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3 comments

03/11/08

Deb rated it:

bookshelves: favorites, non-fiction, short_stories

Read in January, 2001

recommends it for: book geeks

This is my favorite book of essays on reading--I've never found another that can top the eloquence, brevity, and wit contained in this volume.

Things learned: the differences between a courtly and carnal lover of books, what the word sesquipedalians means (very long words), how & when to combine libraries with a fellow book reader you've joined houses with--do you give away the ragtag copy of x book because your partner has a nicer copy? Is a re-read the same without the book you grew...more

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02/29/08

Lindsey rated it:

Read in March, 2008

In these brief essays, Anne Fadiman gives voice to so many delights that come with loving books. From the happy sense of frenzy that comes with entering a hole-in-the-wall used bookstore to the simple pleasure of reading aloud or being read to, she echoes sentiments I've felt all my life but does it much more eloquently than I ever could. With stories of proofreading restaurant menus with her family and organizing her shelves meticulously by category, it would be easy for these essays to come ...more

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01/23/08

Becca rated it:

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: all book lovers

I've always said if I were in a situation where I could only have one book with me, and I would be in that situation for a long time, that I would take an anthology of short stories compiled by Clifton Fadiman (Anne's father). He was just a pure genius at putting together the best anthologies.

I carried Anne's book around a long time in my car (I always keep a book in the car so that I'm never caught without a book--especially when Houston has one of its infamous traffic pileups where...more

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11/01/07

Lilias rated it:

bookshelves: 1_day, non-fiction, short-stories-essays

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: children of readers

First, a little bit about me: There are three things in particular that instill fear into many members of modern-day society and I embrace with pleasure. They are as follows:

1. Books (will make you BORING!)
2. Food (will make you FAT!)
3. Particularity (will make you UNBEARABLE!)

I cannot find it in myself to relate, and to some extent I've learned to deal with that. (Anyone who knows me well enough, has read the book, and happens upon this “review” will pr...more

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09/05/07

Tracey rated it:

Read in December, 2003

I had purchased Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader some time ago on the recommendation of several fellow 50bookchallenge readers and thought this book would be an apt way to end the year.

A collection of essays written for Civilization: The Magazine of the Library of Congress (apparently OOP), Anne Fadiman explores her love of books, reading and writing. The titles alone -- "The Joy of Sesquipedalians"*, "Never Do That to a Book" and "Sharing the Mayhe...more

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quotes from this book

"Muses are fickle, and many a writer, peering into the voice, has escaped paralysis by ascribing the creative responsibility to a talisman: a lucky charm, a brand of paper, but most often a writing instrument. Am I writing well? Thank my pen. Am I writing badly? Don't blame me blame my pen. By such displacements does the fearful imagination defend itself." More quotes...