Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany

A resounding 5 stars for Mount's compilation of everything a true book geek loves. Book porn to the max, a definite triple X.
Just gaze upon the cover, admire those sexy spines that the author herself had painted and made a career of customizing for her patrons. The colors and titles tease you with familiar and unknown pleasures.
Tenderly now, open the book. More tantalizing spines. The familiarity of those you've known, their names so easily roll off your tongue, luscious titles escape from your lips and bring back forgotten memories from a different time, a different place. The longing and desire to hold those who have escaped you, but don't despair, you can have them too. They are there for the asking. Where, you might ask? Gently show more separate the pages, the author has painted pictures of tantalizing book stores and striking libraries beloved by many.
More, more! Yes, there is more to satisfy your geeky needs! Jane Mount allows you to see into the creative dens of authors, their writing sanctuaries where they put pen to paper, their pets who gently caressed their ankles while they wrote.
Don't stop! You won't need to. There is so much more between the covers. Like an onion, peel away the layers of information the author offers you. You love it: Genres galore, reading recommendations and fun quizzes.
Aaaah, a most satisfying experience, indeed. You'll want to revisit this tome again and again. It will never grow old. show less

What a delight! Mount wrote and illustrated this beautiful and heavy ode to books and reading. There are recommendations organized by genre. There are drawings and bios of independent bookstores around the world, and many of the author's drawings of stacks of books. You'll have a page about Virginia Woolf's writing shed and her process, and then illustrated pages about writer-owned bookstores. If you love getting trusted recommendations or you love books on books (one of my favorite genres), you'll want this. I know, I'm gushing.

A beautiful book filled with all things bookish and starring Jane Mount’s charming book illustrations. There are book lists, beloved book stores, striking libraries, quizzes, author profiles, and more, and it’s an absolute treat for book lovers. This is probably the loveliest LT early review book I’ve ever won. (And there’s a ribbon. I love ribbons.) This would make a great gift for anyone who loves books - including yourself!

Thank you LibraryThing and Chronicle Books!

У издателя эта книга проходит как подарочная, однако, кого вы в первую очередь должны ею одарить, так это себя. Такого угощения для любителя чтения не выходило давно. В ней всё про самые лучшие книги от древности до самого до вчера. Охвачены абсолютно все жанры. Есть и детская литература, и спортивная, и научпоп, и кулинария, и фантастика, и путешествия, и даже направления, о которых большинство не особо в show more курсе, – только успевай выписывать названия. Увлекательно рассмотрены буквально все пересечения книг с жизнью – лучшая экранизация, топ-10 песен известных исполнителей, написанных в честь названий книг, советы писателей и поэтов, цитаты, самые невероятные библиотеки и книжные всего мира, питомцы любимых авторов и прочие невообразимые темы – просто масса всего, сдобренного отличными иллюстрациями в удобоваримых порциях. А отправляющимся в путешествия наверняка понравится список из единственных художественных книг, необходимых для понимания почти каждой страны. show less

This is a love story to books, authors, bookstores and readers themselves.

Vibrantly and charmingly illustrated by the author, this is either browsable at your pace or readable in a big gulp. A pleasure for anyone who loves books, you'll almost certainly come across at least a few titles that are new to you, some that have slipped down in TBR interest and will restoke curiosity and others that are familiar friends that you read awhile back and had forgotten about.

The author covers and draws what she loves from her perspective. That's vicariously interesting, but it's not exhaustive, nor could it possibly be. Book lovers get each other, yet tastes and preferences will always be highly personal.

For example, I love indie (and especially show more used) bookstores and she profiles several. There are some mentioned that I've been to and loved and others that I haven't and may never, but I still love knowing they're out there. Ditto for libraries. And creative forms of bookselling (book burros! book vending machines! bookmobiles!) the very existence of which (as well as the people manning them) makes me happy.

There are so many books out there just waiting to be (re)discovered and loved. This book is a reminder of that.

Also: this book (at least at this writing and in the U.S.) is free Prime read if you're an Amazon prime member. Recommend you borrow and see if it's one you want to buy. show less

A fun and colorful book about books that probably will, if not triple your TBR pile, at least fill in any corners. I advise against reading through it in a single day, which I have just shown to be possible, but it's a do as I say, not as I did thing. Of course I disagree with the F&SF sections, full of procrastinating males at the expense of productive women. Mercedes Lackey and C.J. Cherryh are completely un-visible. There is no comedy section, no swashbuckler section, no art books, and except for multiple food sections, no craft sections. Nothing much about series. Has the world forgotten all those interminable family series of the 20th century? I'm sure any avid bibliophore will have a similar list of differences and desires.

A beautiful effort of book-love! Jane Mount has a great gift for exciting people about reading -perhaps especially a younger audience - and brings her passion and art to bear on the many aspects of bibliophilia she explores in this well-crafted volume. While I personally enjoyed her previous effort, My Ideal Bookshelf, more than this one -that is due to my own idiosyncrasies not her lovely book. I did find certain disciplines quite under-represented or absent -like the sciences and medicine -and other areas over-represented by very new and untested by time books. Still I very much enjoyed this and have passed it on to a budding reader who is lapping it up and taking notes! Brava