Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Frances Lincoln (2006), Edition: 1st Frances Lincoln Ed, 240 pages
Description
The ideal gift for any book obsessive, A Book Addict's Treasury is an extensively researched anthology of more than 350 quotations and extracts from a wide selection of writers and thinkers - all on the subject of books. The witty, wise and evocative words cover every aspect of bookishness - including hoarding, buying, borrowing, arranging, stealing, choosing, losing, reviewing and displaying - and comprise memoirs, poetry, journalism, fiction and philosophy. The sources of the extracts range from Erasmus to Edith Wharton to Umberto Eco, from Dante to Descartes to Dickens, from Edward Gibbon to Kenneth Grahame to Groucho Marx. Celebrating the timeless pleasures of reading, casting an irreverent eye over the foibles and eccentricities of booklovers and revealing the reading habits of a host of famous writers, this compendium is a must for any bibliomane. Indeed, if you buy only one book this year, this one is probably not for you.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member wandering_star
This is an anthology of quotations and extracts about books and booklovers, and it's a perfect example of what this kind of anthology should be. The quotations range in length from a couple of lines to a couple of pages, but they are all interesting, fresh and cleverly expressed. They are
teeth, painted scarlet, 49
temptations,
- defied, 77
- liable to great, 199
or margins, a tabula rasa, 195
Marines, tell it to the, 156
Marks and Spencer sandwich, 99
marks, needing an index to give conformity and meaning, 200
masterpieces, woefully mistaken on power of, 132
men, greater, unable to find, 142.
You can find something quotable on almost every page. I've chosen this one because it's about the right length, as well as being one of my favourite ones:
I remember once on coming into my library that I was persistently disturbed by my 'Jane Eyre'. Going up to it, wondering what was the matter with it, restless because of it, I only after a morning's uneasiness discovered that it had been placed next to my Jane Austens, and anyone who remembers how sharply Charlotte criticised Jane will understand why this would never do. (Hugh Walpole)
Sadly the story about Wordsworth cutting the pages of a book with a dirty butter-knife, bemoaning the damage as he did so but unable to stop long enough to get a clean one, was too long.
Recommended for: any book devotee who will be relieved to realise that they aren't alone in their strange book-related behaviours!
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intelligently arranged: by topic - a chapter on buying books, say, or on shelving them - and within this clustered around themes, so sometimes one quote disagrees with the one before it. And as a final gift, the index is a joy: teeth, painted scarlet, 49
temptations,
- defied, 77
- liable to great, 199
or margins, a tabula rasa, 195
Marines, tell it to the, 156
Marks and Spencer sandwich, 99
marks, needing an index to give conformity and meaning, 200
masterpieces, woefully mistaken on power of, 132
men, greater, unable to find, 142.
You can find something quotable on almost every page. I've chosen this one because it's about the right length, as well as being one of my favourite ones:
I remember once on coming into my library that I was persistently disturbed by my 'Jane Eyre'. Going up to it, wondering what was the matter with it, restless because of it, I only after a morning's uneasiness discovered that it had been placed next to my Jane Austens, and anyone who remembers how sharply Charlotte criticised Jane will understand why this would never do. (Hugh Walpole)
Sadly the story about Wordsworth cutting the pages of a book with a dirty butter-knife, bemoaning the damage as he did so but unable to stop long enough to get a clean one, was too long.
Recommended for: any book devotee who will be relieved to realise that they aren't alone in their strange book-related behaviours!
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LibraryThing member elliepotten
This is essentially a collection of quotes about books and reading drawn from fiction, critical works and memoirs. These extracts are divided into categories, such as 'Buying Books' and 'Bookish Vices', and then arranged into miniature dialogues where each piece plays off the one before. This
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builds into a delightful book full of 'oh-my-God-that's-me!' moments; I will treasure it and dip into it again and again as time goes by because it expresses universal, enduring sentiments of genuine love for books and the joys of reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member jayde1599
Synopsis: An anthology of book related quotations and anecdotes, especially made for any bibliophile. Many of the quotes will make a book lover smile and relate.
Pros: A very enjoyable read. One of my favorite lines came right out of the introduction: "Pregnancy is the very best time to read,
Cons: none
Recommended
Pros: A very enjoyable read. One of my favorite lines came right out of the introduction: "Pregnancy is the very best time to read,
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offering as it does an incontrovertible excuse for immobility." I guess I can relate to that line right now :)Cons: none
Recommended
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LibraryThing member borhap
Highly recommendable for everybody who can identify with the title!
I discovered myself so many times in there :)
I discovered myself so many times in there :)
LibraryThing member nandadevi
Yes, it is. Much more than a book of quotes about books, this is a trawling of references to books and reading and libraries from an impressively large number of sources. The bibliography alone makes this worthwhile. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Ok this is a keeper. The organization is awfully clever, as each chapter is about one aspect of loving books. Additionally, within in each chapter, the quotes are arranged so that each very often directly contradicts, or further illuminates, the one preceding it.
I also appreciate the diversity of
Great fun, especially in morsels of time. Recommended to readers, writers, collectors, reviewers. Probably especially recommended to digital readers, as you could highlight, cross-reference, comment, etc. to your heart's content.
I also appreciate the diversity of
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quotes from many eras and from people of different walks of life and of different degrees of renown. I do wish there were more non-Western inclusions, though. And there's a handy subject index, as well as an author index.Great fun, especially in morsels of time. Recommended to readers, writers, collectors, reviewers. Probably especially recommended to digital readers, as you could highlight, cross-reference, comment, etc. to your heart's content.
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LibraryThing member MarianneHusbands
Perfect for anyone who just wants to hunker down and immerse themselves in bibliophile book-loving.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English