Ukrainer's review
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
by Anne Fadiman
Ukrainer's review
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Ukrainer's review
rating:
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 reader.” She is the daughter of two published authors (who sent their children to boarding school); both her husband and brother also write. Is that the pedigree of a common reader?
Fadiman often comes across as pretentious and elitist. In “The Joy of Sesquipedalians,” she writes about reading an essay that introduced her to several new words: diapason, goetic, paludal. I consider myself well educated, intelligent, and well read, but Fadiman’s “ordinary” ...more
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 reader.” She is the daughter of two published authors (who sent their children to boarding school); both her husband and brother also write. Is that the pedigree of a common reader?
Fadiman often comes across as pretentious and elitist. In “The Joy of Sesquipedalians,” she writes about reading an essay that introduced her to several new words: diapason, goetic, paludal. I consider myself well educated, intelligent, and well read, but Fadiman’s “ordinary” ...more
