Phantoms on the Bookshelves - Hardcover

Bonnet, Jacques

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590207599 ISBN 13: 9781590207598

Publisher: The Overlook Press, 2012

Synopsis

The author, a lifelong accumulator of books ancient and modern, lives in a house large enough to accommodate his many thousands of volumes, as well as overspill from the libraries of his friends. While his musings on the habits of collectors from the earliest known libraries are learned, amusing, and instructive, his advice on cataloguing may even save lives. Phantoms on the Bookshelves ranges from classical Greece to contemporary Iceland, from Balzac to Moby-Dick and Google. Rich in wit and wisdom, it will be a lasting delight for all who treasure books.

About this title

About the Author:

Jacques Bonnet is a publisher, translator and the author of novels and works of art history, including a monograph on the artist.

Review:

"This is a charming book full of erudition and wit, and is very nicely translated." — John Sutherland, Literary Review



"Part cataloging manual, part homage to books, adventure story and autobiography, this Borgesian account is a promise of happiness." — Jerome Garcin, Nouvel Observateur

"This charming volume illustrates the intensely symbiotic relationship between reader and writer, a book and its recipients." — Publishers Weekly

"The book's ideal readers will be those who share Bonnet's love of being surrounded by the evidence of their minds' journeys, insatiable readers who love to linger over large and quirky accumulations of the printed word. For those readers, highly recommended." — Library Journal

"In Phantoms on the Bookshelves, Jacques Bonnet has once again invested the humble reading copy, the mode through which we first read, experienced, and encountered our favorite books and writers, with the old affection, respect and awe we had for it." — The Hindu

About this edition

• Publisher: The Overlook Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1590207599
• ISBN 13: 9781590207598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 144