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
Rabinowitz (Pushing the Envelope: Airplanes of the Jet Age) and Kaplan (an editor at HarperCollins) have put together a delightfully eclectic collection of anecdotes, stories, essays, humor, cartoons, quotes, and lists written by writers, critics, booksellers, and book collectors, as well as by the editors themselves. The material speaks not to the activity of reading but rather to the pleasure derived from choosing, holding, and having books. This subject matter makes the work truly unique. Book collectors will smile and nod in agreement again and again as their obsession is legitimized by everyone from Christopher Morley to Ray Bradbury to Norman Mailer to Petrarch. (Umberto Eco's "How To Organize a Public Library" should be required reading in all MLS programs.) A "Bibliobibliography" is provided. This superbly edited collection is highly recommended for all libraries.AAngela M. Weiler, SUNY Libs. at MorrisvilleCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.