false 6833133 89780 46890 0374527229 9780374527228 355 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170343840m/46890.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170343840s/46890.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46890.Ex_Libris_Confessions_of_a_Common_Reader 4.23 1617 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.
]]> 7982 4.14 10707 2003 1998 5 2 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...]]>