A Passion for Books : A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring For, and Appreciating Books

A collection of sixty classic and contemporary essays, stories, lists, poems, quotations, and cartoons that celebrates the joys of reading, the feeling of spending hours browsing through a bookstore, and the people for whom buying books is a necessity. Booklovers will find themselves in good company within the pages of A Passion for Books, beginning with science-fiction great Ray Bradbury's foreword and throughout contributions like-- Umberto Eco's How to Justify a Private Library, dealing with the question everyone with a sizable library is inevitably asked:'Have you read all these books?'; Gustave Flaubert's Bibliomania, the tale of a book collector so obsessed with owning a book that he is willing to kill to possess it; and Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life, in which she shares her optimistic view on the role of reading and the future of books in the computer age. Interspersed throughout are entertaining lists--Ten Bestselling Books Rejected by Publishers Twenty Times or More, Norman Mailer's Ten Favorite American Novels and many more-- plus select writings on bookstores, book clubs, cartoons about books and a specially prepared'bibliobibliography'of books about books. Whether you consider yourself a bibliomaniac or just someone who enjoys reading, A Passion for Books will provide you with a lifetime's worth of entertaining, informative, and pleasurable reading on your favorite subject--the love of books. "When I have a little money, I buy books. And if any is left, I buy food and clothing." --Desiderius Erasmus Those who share Erasmus's love of those curious bundles of paper bound together between hard or soft covers know exactly how he felt. These are the people who can spend hours browsing through a bookstore, completely oblivious not only to the passage of time but to everything else around them, the people for whom buying books is a necessity, not a luxury. A Passion for Books is a celebration of that love, a collection of sixty classic and contemporary essays, stories, lists, poems, quotations, and cartoons on the joys of reading, appreciating, and collecting books. This enriching collection leads off with science-fiction great Ray Bradbury's Foreword, in which he remembers his penniless days pecking out Fahrenheit 451 on a rented typewriter, conjuring up a society so frightened of art that it burns its books. This struggle--financial and creative--led to his lifelong love of all books, which he hopes will cosset him in his grave, "Shakespeare as a pillow, Pope at one elbow, Yeats at the other, and Shaw to warm my toes. Good company for far-travelling." Booklovers will also find here a selection of writings by a myriad of fellow sufferers from bibliomania. Among these are such contemporary authors as Philip Roth, John Updike, Umberto Eco, Robertson Davies, Nicholas Basbanes, and Anna Quindlen; earlier twentieth-century authors Christopher Morley, A. Edward Newton, Holbrook Jackson, A.S.W. Rosenbach, William Dana Orcutt, Robert Benchley, and William Targ; and classic authors such as Michel de Montaigne, Gustave Flaubert, Petrarch, and Anatole France. Here also are entertaining and humorous lists such as the "Ten Best-Selling Books Rejected by Publishers Twenty Times or More," the great books included in Clifton Fadiman and John Major's New Lifetime Reading Plan, Jonathan Yardley's "Ten Books That Shaped the American Character," "Ten Memorable Books That Never Existed," "Norman Mailer's Ten Favorite American Novels," and Anna Quindlen's "Ten Big Thick Wonderful Books That Could Take You a Whole Summer to Read (but Aren't Beach Books)." Rounding out the anthology are selections on bookstores, book clubs, and book care, plus book cartoons, and a specially prepared "Bibliobibliography" of books about books. Whether you consider yourself a bibliomaniac or just someone who likes to read, A Passion for Books will provide you with a lifetime's worth of entertaining, informative, and pleasurable reading on your favorite subject--the love of books. A Sampling of the Literary Treasures in A Passion for Books Umberto Eco's "How to Justify a Private Library," dealing with the question everyone with a sizable library is inevitably asked: "Have you read all these books?" Anatole Broyard's "Lending Books," in which he notes, "I feel about lending a book the way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock." Gustave Flaubert's Bibliomania, the classic tale of a book collector so obsessed with owning a book that he is willing to kill to possess it. A selection from Nicholas Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, on the innovative arrangements Samuel Pepys made to guarantee that his library would survive "intact" after his demise. Robert Benchley's "Why Does Nobody Collect Me"--in which he wonders why first editions of books by his friend Ernest Hemingway are valuable while his are not, deadpanning "I am older than Hemingway and have written more books than he has." George Hamlin Fitch's extraordinarily touching "Comfort Found in Good Old Books," on the solace he found in books after the death of his son. A selection from Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life, in which she shares her optimistic view on the role of reading and the future of books in the computer age. Robertson Davies's "Book Collecting," on the difference between those who collect rare books because they're valuable and those who collect them because they love books, ultimately making it clear which is "the collector who really matters." Introduction: a passion for books In a second-hand bookshop / Christopher Morley Unpacking my library / Walter Benjamin The ritual / Rob Kaplan How to get started in the book business / Stuart Brent "Look who's been remaindered now" Ten best-selling books rejected by publishers twenty or more times Lending books / Anatole Broyard On the return of a book lent to a friend / Christopher Morley Welcome home borrowed book How to justify a private library / Umberto Eco How to organize a public library / Umberto Eco Samuel Pepys's library / Nicholas Basbanes Pillow books / Clifton Fadiman The new lifetime reading plan / John S. Major; Clifton Fadiman Comfort found in good old books / George Hamlin Fitch The collector / Susan Sontag Bibliomania / Gustave Flaubert "All the Friedrich Nietzsche you'll ever need" Bibliomania / Roger Rosenblatt The book action / Solly Ganor From Areopagitica / John Milton Books unread / Thomas Wentworth Higginson Ten books that shaped the American character / Jonathan Yardley Books that changed America / Robert B. Downs The commerce of reading / Michel de Montaigne Book collecting / Robertson Davies "Holy cow!" Bibliomaniacs / John Michell They don't call it a mania for nothing / Harold Rabinowitz Bibliolexicon What is the matter with a bookshop? / A Edward Newton "Non-books" Ten memorable books that never existed The last of his race / A. Edward Newton The perfect book / William Keddie Books are the windows of the soul / Henry Ward Beecher How reading changed my life / Anna Quindlen Three by Quindlen Talking of old books / A.S.W. Rosenbach Potch / Leo Rosten "Damn! Wait your turn!" A good time to start a book club / Al Silverman Invasion of the book envelopes / John Updike "And to some people we might not sell it at any price" My friends / Petrarch Norman Mailer's ten favorite American novels W. Somerset Maugham's ten greatest novels The Bible through the ages / Ben D. Zevin Aldus Manutius / William Dana Orcutt Benjamin Franklin's epitaph The collector / William Targ The Newark Public Library / Philip Roth Why does nobody collect me? / Robert Benchley How not to care for books / Holbrook Jackson On reading and collecting / Herbert Faulkner West Fifteen books we would memorize if we were the "living books" characters in Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 "I just like to be in their presence occasionally" The "100" game: 100 greatest novels in the English language / A. Edward Newton Top 100 English-language novels of the twentieth century 91 Chambers Street / Edward Robb Ellis Bibliobibliography books about books: a selection