Ex Libris
Confessions of a Common Reader
ISBN10: 0374527229
ISBN13: 9780374527228
Trade Paperback
176 Pages
$15.00
CA$20.50
Anne Fadiman is—by her own admission—the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her nineteen pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in her apartment that she had not read at least twice.
Ex Libris recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For Fadiman, as for many 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 twenty-two-volume set of Trollope ("My Ancestral Castles") and who considered herself truly married only when she and her husband had merged collections ("Marry Libraries"), she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of flyleaf inscriptions, the perverse pleasures of compulsive proofreading, the allure of long words, and the satisfaction of reading aloud. Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists.
Reviews
Praise for Ex Libris
"A terrifically entertaining collection of personal essays about books . . . Heartening, tender, wise, and hilarious."—Patsy Baudoin, The Boston Book Review
"In the literary Eden that forms Anne Fadiman's life, the air remains pure allusion, the marginalia flows, and the only snake in the grass is a typo."—Renee Tursi, The New York Times Book Review
"Each essay is a model of clarity and lightly worn erudition, and speaks volumes about the author's appreciation for people as well as books."—The New Yorker
"A smart little book that one can welcome into the family and allow to start growing old."—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
"A lovely collection of essays on a family's love affair with books and words, a passion passed from her parents to her children."—Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today
Reviews from Goodreads
About the author
Anne Fadiman
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