Rating: 
Summary: Quot Libros, Quam Breve Tempus!
Review: (So Many Books, So Little Time!)Books can be untamed streams of cerebral bliss, comfort for the soul, windows to unconquered worlds, faithful friends, keepers of knowledge, time machines, or an escape from the tedium of daily existence. The only thing better than reading a book you love, is having the book read to you by someone you love. We adore books, not only for the thoughts they contain, but for the thoughts we compose when we immerse our minds in them. Finding a book to amuse is sometimes not enough. Delving into the minds of the greatest authors of our time and then reviewing their works, can be a very satisfying journey...and I have only just begun. How does one tame the desire to prowl in libraries and online stores for that perfect book. How do you stop the quickening of your heart as you feel your feet following your desire, straight into the book ambush. That trap of books that so entices, it makes you dizzy with the perfume of the soul and the voices of authors calling to you from the shelves. Surrounded by living books, you only wonder how many you can carry out of the store and not feel the least bit guilty for the pleasure. The only question is will you find the book or will the book find you and jump from the shelves into your hands? The sensual experience of owning books and actually reading them takes you above the level of a bibliophile. When you reach the point in your life where you need a good read to survive in life, you enter a world somewhere between the existence of a bibliophile and hell. When you start to believe in books that write themselves and find you so you can breathe, then you are in serious danger of book addiction. In the pages of Speaking of Books, you will meet your reading soul mates and lose or find yourself in their minds. To decide if you should buy this book, ask yourself: Do I secretly wish I lived in a library and never had to leave?
Are books some of my most cherished possessions?
Am I an official member of Amazon Addicts Anonymous?
Have I ever fallen in love with the mind of an author?
Do I find myself asking people what they have read or advising them
on what they should be reading?
Am I in sheer torment at the thought of the unread book?
Do I need a good laugh? Because some of these quotes are quite funny! Once you have identified yourself as an official book lover, you may want to add this book to your collection. Not only will you relate to most of the quotes, you will enjoy reading the introduction to each chapter. I was simply possessed by this book and read it cover to cover in a few hours. The Index of Authors is also very useful for finding your favorite quotes. It is likely you will find a quote that suits you exactly. Sir Thomas Phillips, in Portrait of an Obsession by A.N.L Munby (1967) about sums up how I feel. "I wish to have one copy of every book in the world." Now, is that too much to ask for? If the very thought of communication with a finer mind excites your very being and you imagine what pleasure it will be to steal away to bed with a book for three hours of uninterrupted intoxication, then you will especially enjoy this escape to book heaven.
Rating:
Summary: A book about books is a booklover's delight
Review: 1) There are more good books than any single person can ever read in their lifetime
2) A sick child at home may in reading a book have a true adventure in mind
3) Not all books are good ones. There are bad books in the world- there are Evil ones that have brought great disaster and suffering.
4) A book can tell us more about strangers than we can ever know about people close to us
5) Each of us is a book or many books. And perhaps one day in the Great Library of the Future there will be a book for each of us that tells our life story.
6) The greatest book there is is the Book of Books-and the author is G-d.
7) Shakespeare did not write his plays to be books- and yet what greater books are there than Lear and Hamlet and Macbeth and Julius Caeasar?
8) A book a day keeps the Alzheimer's at bay.
9) A book about books is a booklover's delight
10) Let us all praise our favorite books.
Rating:
Summary: Why we love books....
Review: A great effort by the editors of another great book "A Passion for Books".As a lover of books and reading I am attracted to books on books.It takes a pair like Rabinowitz and Kaplan to do a real good job of producing such good results.Books on books and books of quotes seem to be topics that edited book producers and publishers seem to believe are a snap to produce.I haven't checked ,but I would suspect R&K could but wouldn't crank out a book on some other subject ie.Birdwtching even if prompted by a publisher.I think this is why these two books are so good.I find editors that pump out books on a variety of subjects produce mediocre results and fall in the same realm as those referred to by Francis M Cornford on page 209 "University printing presses exist,and are subsidized by the Government for the purpose of producing books which no one can read;and they are true to their high calling".These kind of books can often be identified as having received a grant by a government or other body that believes that they,rather than the buyer, should decide what is worth publishing.
as having received some sort of
Rating:
Summary: Why we love books....
Review: A great effort by the editors of another great book "A Passion for Books".As a lover of books and reading I am attracted to books on books.It takes a pair like Rabinowitz and Kaplan to do a real good job of producing such good results.Books on books and books of quotes seem to be topics that edited book producers and publishers seem to believe are a snap to produce.I haven't checked ,but I would suspect R&K could but wouldn't crank out a book on some other subject ie.Birdwtching even if prompted by a publisher.I think this is why these two books are so good.I find editors that pump out books on a variety of subjects produce mediocre results and fall in the same realm as those referred to by Francis M Cornford on page 209 "University printing presses exist,and are subsidized by the Government for the purpose of producing books which no one can read;and they are true to their high calling".These kind of books can often be identified as having received a grant by a government or other body that believes that they,rather than the buyer, should decide what is worth publishing.
as having received some sort of
Rating:
Summary: Speaking of Reviews
Review: Finally a book full of hundreds of quotes for book lovers everywhere. Kaplan and Rabinowitz take us through the ages with delightful thoughts about everything related to books; reading, writing, collecting, libraries, children, editors, publishers and booksellers. A to Z and more. A couple of favorites from Speaking of Books: "The man who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience."
-Arthur Schopenhauer "Do you want to get at new ideas? Read old books.
Do you want to find old ideas? Read new ones."
-Edward Bulwer-Lytton A great gift idea for the book lover in your life.
Rating:
Summary: A Book Lover's Book!
Review: If you love books, you will adore this book. Full of great quotes about the wonder and joy and passion of loving books. I started copying out many of the quotes when I got this at the library, and finally decided I just needed to get my own copy!
Rating:
Summary: A Book Lover's Book!
Review: If you love books, you will adore this book. Full of great quotes about the wonder and joy and passion of loving books. I started copying out many of the quotes when I got this at the library, and finally decided I just needed to get my own copy!
Rating: 
Summary: Aphorisms and Views on Reading and Collecting Books
Review: Review Summary: If you are like me, reading this book will take the normal intimate experience of entering an author's world and extend it into understanding how authors view and experience reading itself. As such, the book deepens the pleasure of your reading to another level by suggesting benefits that you may not yet have considered. On the other hand, I found that the book could have benefited from more editing. Many ideas are expressed in very similar ways, and many authors are repeated a bit too much for my taste. At the same time, the book's information on compulsive book collecting seemed a bit off the mark for my own interests. Review: The book opens with an essay on how electronic books can never substitute for the look, feel, and experience of handling a physical book. On the other hand, the authors fail to give electronic books credit for the things that only they can allow readers to do such as make very extensive easy references, allow the insertion of detailed notes and cross-references, and permit shared thoughts with many other readers in more detailed ways as you mark up a common electronic text. That essay seemed a little too conservative. The book is divided into reading, book, and book collecting subjects. Each one begins with a few paragraphs of commentary with an illustrative quote or two. Then the bulk of the section is comprised of aphorisms and sections involving a few sentences or paragraphs on the subject. In general, I found that the aphorisms worked better than the longer quotes. The book's sections are imaginatively named. I think a good example is using science fiction to help imagine what must be done in order to create a better future for all. May your thoughtful reflections on your reading build beyond the author's sound foundation!
Rating:
Summary: Aphorisms and Views on Reading and Collecting Books
Review: Review Summary: If you are like me, reading this book will take the normal intimate experience of entering an author's world and extend it into understanding how authors view and experience reading itself. As such, the book deepens the pleasure of your reading to another level by suggesting benefits that you may not yet have considered. On the other hand, I found that the book could have benefited from more editing. Many ideas are expressed in very similar ways, and many authors are repeated a bit too much for my taste. At the same time, the book's information on compulsive book collecting seemed a bit off the mark for my own interests.
Review: The book opens with an essay on how electronic books can never substitute for the look, feel, and experience of handling a physical book. On the other hand, the authors fail to give electronic books credit for the things that only they can allow readers to do such as make very extensive easy references, allow the insertion of detailed notes and cross-references, and permit shared thoughts with many other readers in more detailed ways as you mark up a common electronic text. That essay seemed a little too conservative. The book is divided into reading, book, and book collecting subjects. Each one begins with a few paragraphs of commentary with an illustrative quote or two. Then the bulk of the section is comprised of aphorisms and sections involving a few sentences or paragraphs on the subject. In general, I found that the aphorisms worked better than the longer quotes. The book's sections are imaginatively named. I think a good example is using science fiction to help imagine what must be done in order to create a better future for all. May your thoughtful reflections on your reading build beyond the author's sound foundation!
Rating:
Summary: lively tribute to the love of books and reading
Review: This compendium of quotes is divided into 20 chapters (some more vaguely defined than others), each with a short introduction, including:
The Pleasures of Reading
The Pleasures of Buying and Owning Books
Bibliomania
How to Read
Lending and Borrowing Books
What Books Can -- and Cannot -- Teach Us
Collector and Collecting
The Book Trade
The Enemies of Books
Libraries
Good Books and Bad
Books and the Young
Authors and Their Readers
Quotes range in length from one sentence to paragraphs, and are by authors and readers, most pro some con. Unfortunately, not all are dated or sourced. An author index can help you locate musings by particular people.
The font is large and clear, and the book format makes this a pleasure to read.
Fun browsing material for book lovers.
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