Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 272 pages
- Published by: Crown
- Edition: 1st Edition July 17, 2001
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0609608525
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0609608524
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Book Dimensions:
8.5 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 15.2 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
"A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again," notes Carl Van Doren. A few pages earlier, Chaim Grade quips, "If anyone asks you if you've read all those books, it means you don't have enough books." Robert Kaplan and Harold Rabinowitz (A Passion for Books) quote hundreds of writers and bibliophiles and a few bibliophobes in Speaking of Books. Divided into chapters like "What to Read," "The Pleasures of Buying and Owning Books" and "Good Books and Bad," this book is chock-full of witticisms, advice, criticism (Ambrose Bierce's one-sentence review from 1929 goes, "The covers of this book are too far apart"), aphorisms, opinions, etc., by the eminent likes of Emily Dickinson, Walter Benjamin, Italo Calvino, Anna Quindlen and George Bernard Shaw. Ten b&w illus.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Kaplan and Rabinowitz have created a sequel of sorts to their previous tribute to bibliophilia, A Passion for Books (LJ 10/15/99). More a gift book than a reference resource, the current volume offers over 700 observations on books and book collecting some witty, some thought-provoking, and some ponderously long. The quotations are arranged in twenty chapters, but many of the chapter titles, such as "What Books Do and Don't Do for Us," are so vague that they do not act as subject indicators. The quotations are arranged in a loose alphabetical order by author within each chapter, and there are a few See Also references to other quotations within the same chapter. The information given about the source of a quotation varies from title and date of publication, to author and author's vital dates, to author's name only. The same author (and sometimes the same source) is frequently quoted two or three times within the same chapter. Librarians should consider Montaigne's maxim that "there are more books about books than about any other subject" and look instead at other titles, such as Ben Jacobs and Helena Hjarmarson's The Quotable Book Lover (LJ 9/1/99), which offers more pithy and contemporary quotations. Vivian Reed, California State Univ., Long Beach
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Reader Reviews(So Many Books, So Little Time!) Books can be untamed streams of cerebral bliss, comfort for the soul, windows to unconquered worlds, faithful friends, keepers of knowledge, time machines, or an escape from the tedium of daily existence. The only thing better than reading a book you love, is having the book read to you by someone you love. We adore books, not only for the thoughts they contain, but for the thoughts we compose when we immerse our minds in them. Finding a book to amuse is sometimes not enough. Delving into the minds of the greatest authors of our time and then reviewing their works, can be a very satisfying journey...and I have only just begun. How does one tame the desire to prowl in libraries and online stores for that perfect book. How do you stop the quickening of your heart as you feel your feet following your desire, straight into the book ambush. That trap of books that so entices, it makes you dizzy with the perfume of the soul and the voices of authors calling to you from the shelves. Surrounded by living books, you only wonder how many you can carry out of the store and not feel the least bit guilty for the pleasure. The only question is will you find the book or will the book find you and jump from the shelves into your hands? The sensual experience of owning books and actually reading them takes you above the level of a bibliophile. When you reach the point in your life where you need a good read to survive in life, you enter a world somewhere between the existence of a bibliophile and hell. When you start to believe in books that write themselves and find you so you can breathe, then you are in serious danger of book addiction. In the pages of Speaking of Books, you will meet your reading soul mates and lose or find yourself in their minds. To decide if you should buy this book, ask yourself: Do I secretly wish I lived in a library and never had to leave? Are books some of my most cherished possessions? Am I an official member of Amazon Addicts Anonymous? Have I ever fallen in love with the mind of an author? Do I find myself asking people what they have read or advising them on what they should be reading? Am I in sheer torment at the thought of the unread book? Do I need a good laugh? Because some of these quotes are quite funny! Once you have identified yourself as an official book lover, you may want to add this book to your collection. Not only will you relate to most of the quotes, you will enjoy reading the introduction to each chapter. I was simply possessed by this book and read it cover to cover in a few hours. The Index of Authors is also very useful for finding your favorite quotes. It is likely you will find a quote that suits you exactly. Sir Thomas Phillips, in Portrait of an Obsession by A.N.L Munby (1967) about sums up how I feel. "I wish to have one copy of every book in the world." Now, is that too much to ask for? If the very thought of communication with a finer mind excites your very being and you imagine what pleasure it will be to steal away to bed with a book for three hours of uninterrupted intoxication, then you will especially enjoy this escape to book heaven. ~The Rebecca Review
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