false 46890 9 The subtitle of Anne Fadiman's slim collection of essays is <I>Confessions of a Common Reader</I>, but if there is one thing Fadiman is not, it's common. In her previous work of nonfiction, <I>The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down</I>, 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. <I>Ex Libris</I> 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. <p> 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 <I>Ex Libris</I> is likely to bring up warm memories of old favorites and a powerful urge to revisit one's <I>own</I> "odd shelf" pronto. <I>--Alix Wilber</I> 1468318 book 1998 Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader total:1662|5:771|4:564|3:272|2:47|1:8| 1662 7029 2544 358 4 10 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 02 16:46:09 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 24 10:21:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 4 false false Wed Jul 25 10:06:56 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 06:44:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 26 13:10:10 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 28 10:16:08 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Sep 26 10:15:21 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 26 10:33:41 -0700 2007 This one was an easy beach rea...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jan 12 09:18:16 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 12:45:47 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 15:48:49 -0800 2008
Normally a book of non-fiction essays would send me running to the hills, fiction is m...more...]]> 3 2 false false Sat Mar 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 01 08:59:22 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 22 01:07:01 -0700 2009
So reading about another kid who was taught NOT to say "...more...]]> 4 3 false false Fri Sep 21 07:58:09 -0700 2007 Tue Feb 12 15:40:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Sep 26 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Sat Mar 28 11:56:53 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 11:12:39 -0700 2009 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 differ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Mon May 21 01:38:07 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 15:43:16 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Apr 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 08:27:27 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 14:16:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 13:42:23 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 09:06:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 08:31:47 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 11 09:03:37 -0700 2009
Fadiman is the child of readers and is continuing this "habit"...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 19:12:28 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 19:12:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jun 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 14:04:32 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 14:08:23 -0700 2008 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...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 28 02:24:21 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 16 09:27:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Tue Mar 11 13:33:03 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 11 13:49:43 -0700 2008
Things learned: the differences between a courtly and carnal lover of books, what the word sesquipedalians means (very long words), how & when to ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 29 07:57:57 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 16 17:10:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Jan 23 10:10:57 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 19:26:42 -0800 2008 ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 01 17:04:56 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 23 14:13:24 -0800 2007
1. Books (will make you BORING!)
2. Food (will make you FAT!)
3. Particularity (will make you UNBEARABL...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Wed Sep 05 07:36:01 -0700 2007 Tue Dec 18 10:08:40 -0800 2007
A collection of essays written for Civilization: The Magazine of the Library of Congress (app...more...]]>