A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books (Paperback) by Nicholas A Basbanes

from ElizabethChapman

What a stupendous work of research and scholarship! A Gentle Madness is a dizzyingly erudite romp through the history of books and, most of all, book collecting. There is so much ground to cover that author Basbanes makes you breathless, and occasionally frustrated, at how quickly the ages and co...

from varielle

This is a lengthy, comprehensive, well-researched litany of just about every book auction, collection, and book fiend that ever existed. Personnally, I ate it up, but unless you are equally obsessed, a reader might find it a bit dry after a while. The distribution of so many book estates, book th...

from ElizabethChapman

What a stupendous work of research and scholarship! A Gentle Madness is a dizzyingly erudite romp through the history of books and, most of all, book collecting. There is so much ground to cover that author Basbanes makes you breathless, and occasionally frustrated, at how quickly the ages and co...

from tuckerresearch

A good book about books and book collecting. Begins to drag at the end.

from richardderus

Oh my God! There are people crazier than me out there! This is one long book, about people who love books to the point of madness, and the world they've created for themselves to play in. It's a delight to go there with a cicerone as astute and witty as Basbanes. Dozens and dozens of modern-day b...