Title: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Author: Anne Fadiman
Rating: ☆☆☆☆(4/5)

Read from September 11, 2016 to January 31, 2017

Finally I was able to finish this book, it has been with me for quite sometime and yes now I am so done. I enjoyed this book really. Basically this book is all about the confessions of readers, their thing about books, their guilty pleasures, essays about books and of course the love for reading.

I personally enjoyed some chapters of this book.

First one would be about the Marrying of Libraries, it is when a couple merge their libraries together, as for me this is a no no. I love my shelves and I don’t want to see my books merged with someone else’s books (I hope you know what I mean.) Generally, some couples when they got married they also marry their libraries and for them that usually is a good thing as they can share books with each other, but for me I am much more at ease with my own set of shelves not to be joined with someone else’s, even if I marry someone who enjoys books like me I won’t like that to happen, maybe it is okay to borrow each others books. And yes, leave my shelves alone.

Second chapter that I personally like was the Never do that to a Book. Okay, I know that some of us are very particular when it comes to books, their looks and appearance sometimes or generally most of the time matters to us bookworms. In this chapter it was described how a person loves a book be it courtly or be it carnal. Have any of you met a person who in order to reduce the weight of a paperback that person tore off the chapters he had completed and threw them in the trash? It’s gruesome right? If i own that book and you do that I might probably kill you.

“if you ever break the spine of one of my books, I want you to know you might as well be breaking my own spine”

Also, a no no for me is the dog-earing of books. Gosh there are so many bookmarks around, bookmarks are made for this right but I guess it really depends on the reader probably this is some kind of a carnal love, the things you do to a book is a no no for a courtly kind of love that is so very me. I relate so much in this chapter as I was very careful of my books be it old or as new. Some people really had fun writing or highlighting their books, doesn’t matter if there was a tear here or there as long as for them they may still enjoy reading the book. So much of an OC I guess. Haha!

Next Chapter I enjoyed a lot was the You Are There chapter. Let me just describe what is a You-Are-There-Reading, according to the author it is the practice of reading books in the places they describe. So yes to this as I know everyone wants to be in the places of the books they are currently reading. This book as this was a traveling book has lots of marginalia’s and post-its on it and I enjoyed everyone’s you-are-there-reading list. So, to give you a rundown of my list (I just list down 5) here it is:

1. The Fault in our stars / Diary of Anne Frank – Amsterdam
2. Memoirs of a Geisha – Japan (of course, Japan!)
3. Eleven Minutes – Rio, Brazil
4. Me Before You – Paris (I kind of think its very romantic to read here)
5. Book Thief – Germany

So, what are your You-Are-There-Reading list? This list may go on and on but I’ll stop because this review is getting long already. To cut it short this book is very informative and very uplifting for me, very delightful. Some chapters are not very easy to understand for me but all in all this book is very entertaining. Everyone can relate to the attitude of the author towards a book, I totally relate to these confessions and yes I admit I am a courtly book lover as I don’t want any scratches or something in my book (I know I am OC that much) but the love for books has each own sense and affliction on it, it just depends on the reader itself. But, we all can relate to each other when it comes for the love of books. As included in this book:

“When we call people bookworms, we are likening them to the larvae of insects, chiefly members of the orders Thysanura and Psocoptera, whose entire diet may consist of paper and glue. Books are food. We eat them from love or necessity, as other foods, but most from love.”

So, yeah happy book reading, dog-earing or writing in your books whatever makes you feel happy. To this book i enjoyed so much very recommended to those bookworms like me, who eat books for breakfast, lunch and even dinner.