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Summary: slap-the-knee funny, irresistible read!
Review: I laughed so hard at the essay on proofreading (one of her friends described her life as a copyeditor as analagous to that of the person sweeping up the dung behind an elephant in a parade) while waiting to board a plane that when I finally walked on, still reading, a woman in first class grabbed my arm and demanded to know what book I was reading!Don't be fooled by the Latin title and "serious" cover. These essays are tongue-in-cheek, down to earth, and absolutely hilarious, especially if you're a voracious reader-- or have ever had to do any copyediting. Fadiman is humble and self-deprecating, describing her family as compulsive proofers-- I loved the example of them gleefully pointing out errors in restaurant menus. But it's impossible not to be bowled over by her turns-of-phrase and her wit. The essay about how she and her husband married their book collections is also a standout-- and one that anybody can relate to who's ever been through this, whether it be with books, cds or spices! My only complaint about this book is that it's impossible to put down, and that it's too short. When I got back from my (business) trip I immediately photocopied the essay on proofreading for the head of marketing, the artistic director, and the managing director of the theatre where I work (there had been a crisis in semicolons in my absence). This book is a reference for any teacher, writer, reader or marketer. One of the best reads of the year!
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Summary: Biblioholics, Feed Your Heads
Review: Anne Fadiman is the editor of The American Scholar, an eminent journal devoted to bookish essayists. She publishes some of the better schorlarly writers working in English, and proves to be a fine prose artist in her own right. This volume collects a series of essays on books written for the periodical Civilization. How you regard this book has much to do, I think, with how you regard books in general. If you not only must read to fully exist, but also derive visceral enjoyment from simply handling books, spending time in bookstores, and contemplating your own shelves, you will probably take to Fadiman's essays. If you, like me, read the spines of the books shelved in other people's houses, you will like this collection. Ms. Fadiman is witty, observant, and self-effacing. She wears her literary pedigree lightly (she is the daughter of Clifton Fadiman), and writes a prose that is seamless and stylish without being self-consciously clever. That's not so easy to do, if you've ever tried. There are several standouts in this collection. I recommend "Marrying Libraries," about merging co-domiciled book collections. Her essay on proofreading is also fine.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! What a gem.
Review: Beautifully written, warm, and generous. A book lovers delight! Ms. Fadiman does a wonderful job of bringing to life each individual portrayed in her essays. A very engaging, often humorous, and lively read.
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Summary: The Joy of Sesquipidalians!
Review: I recently purchased this book because a school teacher of mine recommended it in our summer reading manual, saying that each time she has read aloud from it, someone from the audience stopped to inquire about the book. I can understand why. Ex Libris is a witty, humerous, and above all polished acount of a lifelong love affair with books and the English language. My personal favorite essay among the many gems is The Joy of Sesquipidalians, where Fadiman discusses the peculiar allure of long words, and proceeds to give a list of recent sesquipidalians she had come across, including such words as mephitic, adapertile, aspergill, goetic, and grimoire, among a host of delightful others. I empathize with her completely, as I know the joy of sesquipidalians intimately. Her other essays are also wonderful. One of my other favorites is her essay on plagiarism, where she hilariously footnotes almost every one of her sentences, ostensibly to keep from plagiarizing anyone. In short, Ex Libris is a fantastic little book, one which I will treasure for a lifetime. Fadiman's joy, wit, and erudition shine through every precious page.
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Summary: Words to savor
Review: Rarely do I find a book that gives me such unadulterated pleasure as this collection of essays. What a reading experience! I chuckled over Fadiman's countless true and amusing insights, such as the division of the world into those who constantly and subconsciously proofread written material and those who do not. I delighted in Fadiman's many perfect and seemingly effortless turns-of-phrase. Fadiman manipulates the language so skillfully that she risks seeming condescending, but she never does. Rather, she comes across as a lover of words and a sincere bibliophile. After reading a library copy of this book, I purchased my own, because I knew I would want to re-read and savor the insights on varied aspects of reading: the odd shelf in a personal library, reading aloud, plagiarism versus borrowing, marriage and the merging of books, and reading books in their settings. This book has earned an honored spot on my bookshelf.
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Summary: lovely literate laughs for lovers of literature
Review: This book is adorable! (And I've been enjoying seeing all the perfectly spelled reviews here!) I was only sorry it was so short. Every chapter made me wish I had the author for a friend. I almost cried with joy reading the description of the Fadiman family at the restaurant, horribly distracted from the food by misspellings-- I always thought we were the only ones.
I was a big fan of her genial father Clifton, and I see the talent came down in the family. Anne, come to Paris!
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Summary: Read, think, smile
Review: What a captivating and fun little book! I don't attach to it the same deep meanings that some of my fellow reviewers did, but there is plenty here that any true book lover will identify with and enjoy. I found the book a bit uneven -- we've all read enough bad poetry to want to avoid reading about flawed verse in the chapter called Scorn Not the Sonnet, and while the point is well made in Nothing New Under the Sun, I felt I was going to suffocate under the weight of all those footnotes. But where Ex Libris is good it is very good. On this book's pages, you'll find charming anecdotes about messages written inside book covers, funny stories about people compelled to proofread at all time, an essay on the joy of reading a book in the place it is about, and a little stab at the annoying practice of removing the gender from popular sayings. Every one a gem. This is also a handsome edition of the book, making it a great gift for any book lovers you know. It's an even better gift to yourself.
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Summary: A great book about...books
Review: If you adore reading, you will soon find yourself wrapped up in the essays that compose this book by Anne Fadiman. Not only do we get to see her love of books, but we see how her upbringing brought along this love and the how she rears her children to embrace books as she and her husband do. The reader is swept up in Anne's conversational way of describing from things that irk her (in an essay about correct punctuation) to the emotional task of trying to merge her and her husband's libraries. Over the course of the 18 essays I found I almost enjoyed them all. One or two essays seemed a bit out of place, but for the most part, I just wished it was longer. :)
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Summary: Do We Own Books, or Do They Own Us?
Review: Why do we keep books on a shelf? According to one of the essays in Anne Fadiman's gem of a book, Ex Libris, it's because they provide a concrete picture of who we are and how we developed. This message really hits home for those of us who have tried to find an out-of-print book that captures a particular time in our past. Fadiman understands this obsession. I originally borrowed Ex Libris from the library, and then found myself climbing up a ladder in a used bookstore to add this must-have volume to my own bookshelves. This is a book whose content I have shared with bibliophiles and nonbibliophiles alike. My husband and I both reacted in horror to Fadiman's story of her distress while combining libraries with her spouse...a merger that we both agree will never occur in our own home. My co-workers laughed and nodded at the description of proofreaders being compared to the person sweeping up elephant dung after a parade. And, another person in my life couldn't understand my excitement of reminiscing about and keeping books read years ago, which she termed "clutter." Fadiman beautifully captures and describes all these and more peculiarities of book lovers.
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Summary: A Fun, Entertaining Book on Books & Language
Review: Anne Fadiman's 'Ex Libris' kept me entertained with these light-hearted, hilarious essays about books. Ok, so she confesses of eing a bit obsessed with her passion. Her life long love affair with books and language has become chapters in her own life story. Fadiman admits she learned about [love] from her father's copy of 'Fanny Hill.' And at one time found herself reading a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only thing in her apartment she hadn't read.
Fadiman recounts a book lover's odyssey in her well-tuned personal essays. Finding her ("True Womanhood") in favorite anecdotes from Father Bernard O'Reilly. not seeing eye-to-eye, but thankful for him that she got to know her great-grandmother. In ("Marrying Libraries"), she didn't feel completely married without merging her and her husband's collection. Her well-worded apology on plagiarism ("Nothing New Under the Sun") is witty and raw. Her first introduction to books at the age of four, when she liked building castles ("My Ancestral Castles") with her father's pocket-sized twenty-two volume set of midnight blue 'Trollope.' Fadiman's addiction to long words ("The Joy of Sesquipedalians") would beat me in a game of scrabble. Just sitting at the breakfast table of the Fadiman's would bring new intellect to one's vocabulary. Thanks you, Carl Van Vechten! Would you know the meaning of monophysite, ithyphallic, aspergill or opopanax?
Fadiman's happiness is a round-trip ticket to any used bookshop namely New York's finest ("Secondhand Prose") ponders the words of Henry Ward Beecher, "Where human nature so weak as in the bookstore!" The temptations of books kept her in good company with Southey and Macaulay. There are family members and friends who have brought me books on many occasions and I can relate to Anne Fadiman. I enjoyed this very much. It taught me to be wise, be a good speller, tackle big words and love books alot more.
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