Customer Reviews

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

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Literally anyone who enjoys reading will prize this book. I had mentioned and quoted briefly from the book on my personal page, and received questions about the work, as well as many people who said they too had the disease.

There is truly a Psychological condition that describes people obsessed with books, the condition is known as Bibliomania, derivatives include Bibliomaniac, and Bibliomane. The Author describes a condition of buying books you have no intention of reading. For most of us (I am afflicted) this means we buy and read books as much as we can. I have crossed over to collecting old books, and since they are in Latin, Greek, and other languages unknown to me, my defense that I will read them is weak.

You will read about a man who "collected" over 23,000 books from various libraries and other book outlets just to possess them. His library grew as he traveled around the Country adding to his collection. His taste was excellent and his library contained priceless volumes by the hundreds. His story illustrates how easy access is to rare books and further how they can be purloined. It is not a how to steal books section, just one amazing tale.

The book also documents the building/collection of some of the finest libraries in existence. The libraries are as varied as there are books. One women set out to build the definitive library of children's books, what she has collected will amaze you.

The attitudes of the caretakers of these works view themselves as just that, keepers for a time, their feelings about where books should be, and should never be will surprise you. What is done with many collections after the original assembler dies will also surprise you.

The book also educates the reader to the History of bookmaking, the few surviving Guttenberg Bibles, books from the cradle i.e. incunabula, produced prior to the year 1400ad.

This book will probably set you off to an antiquarian bookfair, for lovers of books it's a special experience. Hold a first edition by Galileo, see 1 page of a Guttenberg Bible that for $25,000-$30,000 can be yours. Or for the upscale shopper you can bid against Bill Gates for the Leicester Codex of Da Vinci, in round numbers bring about $40,000,000.

After you read the book, everything you read going forward will be enhanced. But tread carefully; the collection of old books is not an inexpensive hobby. On the other hand holding a book that is 500 years old can be a pretty heady experience.

Every library will be enhanced by this book.

Basbanes' book is a must for any serious bibliophile. It takes you, almost chronologically, through the history of creative collecting, from the ancient Greeks to the modern book maniac. Among others, you'll meet Samuel Pepys (he of the famous diary) and Princeton's William H. Scheide, a rich old coot who owns one of the few surviving Gutenberg Bibles. My favorites are the eccentrics, and there are plenty of them here. You know, the wackos whose houses are literally filled to the ceilings with books and nothing else. If I had the money and the chutzpah, that'd be me.

First, to enjoy this book, you really have to love books. Now, I'm not saying love *reading*, I mean the actual book. That graceful innovation that allows us to transmit our thoughts and feelings to others and through time. Basbanes has the love and speaks to others who share the affliction of bibliophilia.

In his chapter "The Blumberg Collection", Basbanes writes about the extreme of book mania, and I wrote this review to at least point the reader to this chapter. Get it from the library if you don't want to purchase the book, it's only 50 pages. It is best to discover this chapter on your own, but the outer fringe of book loving is pretty ugly, but great reading.

I really, really love books. I am a book dealer and gain deep pleasure from just knowing that I have a Great Books set (which I will probably never read) just in case I *need* to read Kant at some point. If you have more books than you could possibly ever read and love the feel, the look and the presence of your library, then take it from a kindred spirit that one of our kind has written a book for us.

This is an erudite account of various aspects of book collecting, its practitioners, and their collections. Basbanes covers in detail the histories of some of the greatest collections, and those of the individuals behind them. His thoroughly researched work also explores two collectors whose activities might be more accurately described by changing to "real" the "gentle" of the book's title. A piquant note is added by the fact that true to form one of these two wrote a pseudoanonymous review for Amazon.com but could not resist to reveal his identity by listing his address as "heaven", a take-off on his name "Haven". The author's many years of successful non-fiction writing for the media have resulted in gripping accounts; a must for anybody who shares his - and my - love for books.

For anyone who has felt the joy of holding a beautiful volume or the compulsive tug to have it for one's own, this book is a must read. From Alexandria to the present, it chronicles the human passion for books and collecting through stories that are lively enough for the novice and scholarly enough for the serious collector.

It always seemed to me that my passion for books and the lenghts to which I would often go to satisfy it was not very distant from a mild form of madness. This wonderful book has showed me that, madness though it may be, it has been shared by many illustrious persons and is no reason for shame. My only quibble is a certain degree of envy thar rises up after reading about rich individuals who were able to indulge their preference much more munificently than I!

Having my own small collection of 800 books, a few first editions, several autographed editions I can relate. I loved this book. It was given to me last year by my best friend, another book lover, and I have enjoyed it so much. I am not a great, gifted collector, but still a collector and I can tell you where each book was purchased, the date, and sometimes even my mood. Some of the books I will not let anyone borrow they are too precious to me. Yes, I too suffer from this divine madness as my two children also. It is a great hobby, madness whatever..."So many books so little time."

For a book so long, I was finished reading it in quite a short amount of time - because I did not want to stop. The tales of various book collectors were fascinating and gave me a sense of the varieties of my madness for book collecting. Although I do not have the desires, pickiness, nor funds to do that which some of the subjects of the book have done I am quite pleased to find my humble collecting habits at least behaviorally in good company.

Basbanes' beautifully produced book explores the sometimes strange world of book collectors throughout history - from Mark Antony's looting of 20,000 volumes from the library at Pergamum as a gift to Cleopatra's rival library in Alexandria, to the skilled career of Stephen Blumberg, who seldom washed but built his personal collection by stealing rare books from libraries all across the country. As of Basbanes' publication, he was due to get out of jail the following year.

In a lively anecdotal style equally reverent and irreverent, Basbanes devotes the first half of his book to the lore and history of book collections throughout the world and the second half to well-researched and even gossipy profiles of the world's foremost living collectors. A delightful book which will make a fine addition to any collection no matter how small.

Yes, dear friends, there are other bibliophiles out there and this book takes you to their libraries. A great volume for your "books on books" shelf (those of you who've read Ex Libris whill know what I'm talking about), a great book for reading and rereading. Its witty, charming, humourous and outright fun. I can't recommend it more, go get it as fast as you can!