A passion for books

Available (1)

Location	Collection	Call #
CLP - Main Library	Second Floor - Non-fiction	Z1003.2.P37 1999
Location	CLP - Main Library
Collection	Second Floor - Non-fiction
Call Number	Z1003.2.P37 1999

Something

Summary

Contents

The pleasures of reading / Joseph Epstein
Other worlds to inhabit / John Bayley
Casaubon's syndrome, or reader rampant / Ferdinand Mount
Books in my life / G. Thomas Tanselle
Hooked.. / Nina King
Mountains and caverns / Alan Sillitoe
Obsessed by Thomas Mann / Jeffrey Meyers
Encountering Philip Larkin / Dale Salwak
Devouring of the printed page / Ann Thwaite
Discovering Jane Eyre / Catherine Peters
The radiant way and after / Margaret Drabble
Reading my father / Mary Gordon
Into terra nova : a crossing with books / Laura L. Nagy
Sine qua non / Frances H. Bachelder
The performer and the reader / Michael Ellis
Literature without books? / Laurence Lerner
The sad demise of the personal library / James Shapiro
The future of the academic book / Gill Davies
The end of the book? Some perspectives on media change / Elizabeth L. Eisenstein.

Published Reviews

Booklist Review: "Literary critic Salwak brings together an engaging collection of essays on the pleasures of books--reading them, owning them, thinking about them, even fondling them. The text is divided into three sections: "Contemporary Trends," general essays on reading; "Books of Our Own," personal essays on favorite books and authors; and "Future Concerns," speculation on the future of print in an electronic world. Inevitably, some of this material sounds overly familiar: impassioned accounts of the physical pleasure to be derived from holding a book; naysayers decrying the electronic book; testimonials as to the ability of books to transport the reader to far-away lands of the imagination. Along with the predictable, though, there is the delightfully idiosyncratic: Joseph Epstein noting that the main virtue to be garnered from "a fair amount of reading of the belletristic kind" comes down to "a distrust of general ideas," or Margaret Drabble speaking in support of Wordsworth's careless handling of his fellow poet Southey's books. Good browsing material and a terrific source for anyone called upon to pontificate about books and reading. --Ilene Cooper"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Despite the title of this collection of original essays by well-known authors, critics and book business figures, the length, mood and tone of these pieces seem designed more to resist than to stimulate passion. Each contributor provides a conversational summaryÄranging from the likable to the irritatingÄof a formative literary experience. All agree that books supply an imaginative variety and richness that trumps the competition, especially television and the Internet. The World Wide Web is the Darth Vader of this anthologyÄthe dark side of literacy that draws young Jedi knights away from Proust and Eliot and even from What Katy Did, Huck Finn and Little Women. Laurence Lerner, in something of a failure of imagination, asks, "Who derives sensuous pleasure from the pale gray of his computer casing, or the electron flow across the screen?" Catherine Peters worries that audiobooks may spell the end of reading while Ferdinand Mount bemoans the rise of "critical theory," although he is vague on what "critical theory" is, exactly. Despite the overly serious, pessimistic and even defensive tone, there are plenty of entertaining moments. Bibliographer Thomas Tanselle strives to break down the border between collecting books and reading them, Salwak offers a moving personal account of becoming a devoted reader of the poet Philip Larkin, only to be faced with scandalous biographical revelations about him. Most salutary of all, historian Elizabeth L. Eisenstein closes the volume by pointing out that "premature obituaries" for the book have a long history: Western reading habits, she writes, "are likely to persist, no matter how many new electronic instruments are devised." (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Additional Information

Subjects	Books and reading -- United States. Books and reading -- Great Britain. Critics -- United States -- Books and reading. Critics -- Great Britain -- Books and reading. Authors, English -- Books and reading.
Publisher	New York :St. Martin's Press,1999
Contributors	Salwak, Dale.
Language	English
Description	xviii, 208 pages ; 23 cm
Bibliography Notes	Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-200) and index.
ISBN	0312218842 (alk. paper)
Other	Classic View