Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World

by Nicholas A. Basbanes

Book Overview

Inspired by a landmark exhibition mounted by the British Museum in 1963 to celebrate five eventful centuries of the printed word, Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the imagination of countless influential people.

In his fifth work to examine a specific aspect of book culture, Basbanes also asks what we can...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060593237
• ISBN13: 9780060593230
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Book about Books

This is the best book I have ever read people that love books. I've read book lists, books about book collectors, books about bibliophiles, books where the author secludes himself and tackles a genre and I've never found one that made me want to buy, keep or lend it. They all failed by either being too much about the author and his own bookworm tendencies or simple superficial lists that are tiresome to read when they run book length. This book captures the common aspects of the serious readers. I grabbed this book from the 'new and notable' shelf at my library and I love it so much I'm buying it and giving it as gifts to my bookworm friends.

Another excellent Basbanes book

Basbanes has provided another well written,well researched book for serious readers,including some excellent interviews with the right people.From this one, I listed another six to read that he had referenced in the discussions. I always look forward to his next book.

Every Book Its Reader

Of course I'm going to read this book, it's about books, and what diehard reader worthy of the name isn't going to fall head over heels in love with it? One caveat, though, he'd recommend an author or a book and I'd have to stop reading his book and go get theirs. For example, on the very first page of the first chapter (appropriately titled "The Magic Door"), Basbanes writes about May Lamberton Becker, a book reviewer for the Saturday Review of Literature in the last century and the author of A reader's guide book, in which Lamberton writes of a farmwife in in Pennsylvania in 1921 who writes to her as follows: "May I ask you to tell me of a few books that you have loved, that have made you sit up and just shout with delight? I am going to buy four new books this winter and I want four friends to stay by me, to read over and over." Becker prints the letter in her column and the woman is inundated with books from all over the country. And Becker's book is now on my to-read shelf. Sometimes Basbanes is overwhelmed by his own enthusiasm and wanders off topic, but it's worth the minimal slog that results when you stumble across nuggets like the story about Abigail Adams, in England with John after the war, who receives a letter from a friend back home which informs her that son John Quincy is starting to think himself quite the intellectual. She sits down and writes this reproof to son John Quincy: "If you are so conscious to yourself that you possess more knowledge upon some subjects than others of your standing, reflect that you have had greater opportunities of seeing the world, and obtaining a knowledge of mankind than any of your contemporaries. That you have never wanted a book but it has been supplied to you, that your whole time has been spent in the company of men of literature and science. How unpardonable would it have been in you to have been a blockhead." You go girl. And then there is the passage from author Dorothy Thompson's review of Hitler's Mein Kampf: "Americans can now read the text of the book that has shaken Western civilization...Let it be said that if the world is overthrown by this document and the man behind it, it is overthrown without benefit of grammar or literary style." And then there is Thomas Hobbes starting a translation of the Greek epics because, at the age of 86, he was bored. A product of the Age of Reason, he wrote out most of the gods. A wonderful book for anyone interested in the history of reading, writing and literature.

What it means to develop a love for reading.

Some like novels,some the classics,some plays,some history,some mysteries,some poetry,some philosophy,some military,some fiction,some non-fiction,some biographies,and on and on.What readers read ,is different with just about everyone. Some even like to read 'books about books';and that is what we have here. I have read several of Nicholas A. Basbanes' books, as well as others who write these kinds of books. I would imagine ,that the more one reads, the more books like this are of interest to them. Granted,'books about books' are usually written by very literary people who talk mainly about classics and other books that have had a great impact amongst what one thinks is the literary establishment.This includes not only writers ,critics,literary professors,publishers,booksellers,astute collectors,custodians of libraries and collections.What all these people have in common, is a love of books and reading. That is not to say,that unless you belong to that group;this book would not be interesting to you. Not everyone,and for that matter,only a small percent of people become avid readers. Regardless of what one likes to read,there is a lot in this book that you will find very interesting. What do you think about the business of writing notes,comments,underlining and whatnot,in the margins of our books? Some think that is a major taboo.What does an astute bibliophile have to say about it? You will be surprised;I knowI was.I did not realize the interest in this area and there is even a name for it;"marginalia'. What did some of the world's famous read. People like Hitler,Thomas Edison,Coleridge,Flannery O'Connor,Oliver Wendell Holmes,Robert Frost,the Wright Brothers,Marquis de Sade,and others are discussed as are their book collections and reading interests. As you read this book ,you'll be impressed how many books some people are able to read.A good example is critic,author and educator Harold Bloom who has been reading continually from the age of five,can sustain a pace of upward of a thousand pages an hour,more than fifteen pages a minute.A friend of his said;"There is no one in the world who has read as much and remembered as muh as Harold."When asked if his mind-boggling speed applies to works he relishes and savors ,word for word;he said "no,not at all.I don't speed-read Shakespeare,but I know it all by heart anyway,so it doesn't matter."Find out what Bloom answered when asked to choose "the one book, above all others ,that he would take with him on a forced exile. If you are an avid reader,regardless where your interests lie,you'll love this wonderful look into the Literary World by someone who has spent a lifetime in it.