I've never read anything else by Anne Fadiman, but I LOVED this book. It's a book about books (a bunch of essays about books, actually), and it's tiny, and it's exactly what a reader/lover of books would enjoy. She writes about organizing her books, deciding what books to keep and throw away, writing in them, reading them, and writing ABOUT them. It made me want to read more and then read and read and read some more. It reminded me of how much I really love reading essays written--not academic essays (after I graduate, I'll never do it again!), but personal essays. Fadiman is a beautiful writer, too, and she made me want to try my hand at writing some essays. I had to write some during an essays class I took at BYU and I actually really enjoyed it--a creative writing style I could get into, I think. It's a little like blogging, but more official.
The only slightly negative thing about this book is that she totally makes me feel like an imposter--I've barely heard of a lot of the books she references, and I'm not sure I'd even enjoy them--and my small library of 2.5 bookshelves seem totally inadequate. But of course, she and her husband are both writers for a living, so their whole life revolves around reading and writing, so I can't feel bad that I don't really compare.
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