Buried in Books: A Reader's Anthology

by Julie Rugg

For bibliophiles, life is full of tricky problems: wondering whether a small trunk full of reading material can be taken on board as hand luggage; how to smuggle yet another guilty stash of tomes past the nearest and dearest. But as Julie Rugg shows in this anthology, bibliophiles are by no means new. 

For centuries bookish types have been delving in bibliophilia. Buried in Books is a compilation of more than 350 literary extracts, quotations, and bon mots arranged in 14 chapters that cover every aspect of bookish behavior: reading, buying, borrowing, recommending, hunting, even defacing. The selections range from short, pithy quotations to more extensive extracts, and they are taken from diaries, memoirs, novels, plays, and letters by authors from Samuel Pepys to Iain Sinclair, Laurence Sterne to Lucy Mangan. 

If you are an obsessive reader, stroke this book lovingly, listen as you riffle through the pages, and be proud: you are in good company.

• ISBN13: 9780711229235
• Publish Date: 1 October 2010
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Imprint: Frances Lincoln
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

This one's been on the piles for at least a year now, and upon cracking it open today, I discovered it's an entire book full of quotes about books:  reading, collecting, borrowing, defacing and, in the last chapter, the horrifying prospect of running out of them.

I read most of the quotes in the first half, but skimmed the rest, looking for citations that included names or book titles I recognised.  Rugg gets bonus points for a collection that is not a retread of all the popular internet memes; there were very few quotes here that I recognised, and sadly for my TBR, a few titles that the stacks will soon be forced to take in and provide shelter for.