I’m starting to feel like a broken record because I am going to mention, once again, Every Book Its Reader by Nicholas Basbanes. I love reading books about books and reading. They somehow offer a sense of belonging to a large clan with lots of aunties and uncles and a history going back hundreds of years. It feels cozy to fit myself into it and know that I am not as crazy as some and that my urge for more and more books is quite a normal family trait that no one thinks twice about.
One of the perils of reading nonfiction, especially books about books, is that I end up wanting more books, especially when the book I am reading passes the “acid test” as Sandra describes it today, and, like her, “I find myself composing a lengthy list of works which are mentioned in the text and which the writer has convinced me I desperately want to read.” This is exactly what is happening to me with the Basbanes book at the moment.
The book is a bit of a medley and I can’t really say there is much of a focus and I’m not sure how anything relates to the title right now, but I am enjoying it nonetheless, even with comments like Jackson’s that I mentioned yesterday. I am feverishly making X’s next to titles in the bibliography and the notes pages. For instance, I suddenly find myself wanting to read every single book Holbrook Jackson (not to be confused with H.J. Jackson on Marginalia) has ever written on reading. I have never heard of the man before but now I wonder how I’ve managed without him.
I also find myself wanting to scour secondhand shops for old “best of” books like The Best Books of Our Time published in 1931. There are more scholarly books that have my interest too like Reading Revolutions: The Politics of Reading in Early Modern England by Kevin Sharpe.
Then there is Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation first published in 1844. Ever heard of it? It is, as one scholar calls it, an “evolutionary epic.” This book was published before Darwin wrote Origin of Species. Darwin even read it and apparently took extensive notes of what not say about evolution. I’ve not even read Darwin but I inexplicably have to read Vestiges along with a book about it by James Secord called Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of “Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.”
I am only on page 129 of 316 pages. When I finish, perhaps the most interesting thing will be to see what books I haven’t marked as must reads. That is, if there are any I haven’t marked.
Only 316 pages? Is Mr. Basbanes feeling all right? I tried Patience and Fortitude but lacked those qualities in order to finish it. Maybe I’ll try “Every Book…” despite the danger it might post to my TBR list.
I mean, pose. Bloggian slip.
When I start reading something good, I find myself wanting to post on it over and over again too (Boswell, for example) — nothing wrong with that! I love finding out about interesting books like the ones you list, especially the nonfiction ones that I’d never heard of before. I love reading novels, of course, but sometimes finding out about those cool nonfiction books is even more exciting.
I give in! I need to get this book – and I’m interested in Holbrook Jackson too. What has he written, Stefanie, please? I’m also on the lookout for books about reading at the moment.
You’re right Sylvia, Basbanes is slipping in the page count department. I understand why you abandoned Patience and Fortitude. It starts off well then about halfway through starts to go south. Basbanes makes a valiant attempt to save the whole thing at the end but it is too little too late. I think you may have just created a new catch phrase with “bloggian slip”
I know what you mean Dorothy. Novels are my primary love, but sometimes nothing gets me so fired up and excited as good nonfiction. It’s like fiction makes me brain relaxed and happy and nonfiction makes my synapses snap and crackle with the pleasure of learning new things.
Litlove, I linked Jackson’s name to Wikipedia in the post and they appear to have an extensive bibliography, but the books that you might find of particular interest are The Fear of Book, The Reading of Books, and The Anatomy of Bibliomania. The University of Illinois reprinted them in the US in 2001. There is also Bookman’s Pleasure: A Recreation for Booklovers. He has several books on the history of printing as well several books about the nineteenth century. I can’t vouch for Amazon UK but Amazon in the US has a good listing of his books for browsing.
I’ve just finished, this very week, slogging through my notes from Michael Dirda’s enchanting A Reading Life, a list of books about Italy from a villa-renting catalog company, and all the titles nominated by the contributors to The Book That Changed My Life – all so I could order recommended (but often overlooked) titles for the branch library in Atlanta where I work. It’s tedious, but a lot more satisfying than poring over the almost-always-breathlessly-positive reviews to new books on the market. I want our patrons to hear about or see a citation to some semi-obscure but beloved book and be able to find it in their branch library. Other list-making projects include: a list of book-themed fiction, and a growing collection of books-about-books (like the ones you and I mentioned) in our Dewey 000s section. (These are great for book displays, too, by the way, of the “What Should I Read Next” variety.
Oops – make that Book by Book: Notes on the Reading Life by Michael Dirda (Holt, 2005).
I love books that give you more ideas for reading. I keep lists all over the place with suggestions like these. And books about books are wonderful–I have a little stack that I look at longingly–will get to them eventually.
Yes Cal, that Dirda book has some good book references in it, doesn’t it? I love making lists so your list-making projects sound fun, and they are for a good cause too!
I have a growing stack of books about books Danielle, not all of them read. I like to save them for just the right time
Basbanes is a great fellow and the best of readers. At least I now know what to call my afflictions! Met him at the NH Antiquarian bookfair last fall.
I try to keep up with my reading thoughts as well on my reading blog http://www.zebra.net/~ernie.seckinger/reading.htm but more on a monthly, rather than a daily basis. Of Every Book Its Reader, I wrote:
Stellar in my relationship with this book is that I bought it from the hand of Basbanes at the New Hampshire Antiquarian Book Fair in Concord, NH in September. By page 2 he had me hooked with a discussion of a used book with the previous owner’s name inscribed. How many times have I been in that zone explaining to friends that to have and to read such puts you into a community of readers. As they say, it just got better with each page. For readers and appreciators of books, perhaps this says, if not all, a lot: “In one essay she wrote about Read Out and Read, Klass (a pediatrician) offered this… ‘When I think about children growing up in homes without books, I have the same visceral reaction as I have when I think of children in homes without milk or food or heat: It cannot be, it must not be. It stunts them and deprives them before they’ve had a fair chance.’”
That must have been fun meeting Basbanes Ernie! He is definitely a person who love books and reading. The Klass quote says it all!
I, too, love reading books about books. One of my favorites is a visual treat–At Home With Books, and features home libraries big and small. One is a tour of a tiny apartment, where the book-loving resident built special shelves running around doorframes and up along the ceiling throughout his home. He reclaimed wasted space and that’s his library.
Oh yes, as much as I love books about books, they can wreak havoc on my wishlist!
Have you read ‘Ex Libris’ by Anne Fadiman? That’s one of my favorites.
Photo Buffet, I love At Home With Books. It is such a beautiful book! I take it from the shelf and drool over it regularly
Lesley, I have read Ex Libris. Fadiman is a great bookish storyteller.