author : Julie Rugg

This is a book about books about books. What distinguishes it from the usual collection of quotations is the length of most of them. Usually one gets a book-full of sound-bites and one-liners. Here there are some of those, but also longer paragraph- and page-length quotations. This gives more depth to the excerpts, as there is substantial context, too.

There is the obligatory author index. But there is also, again distinguishing this from the usual theme-ordered offering, a subject index; that index may not be the near-complete concordance of most collections of quotations, but it suffices, for the most part.

The choice displays a clear love of books, leavened with the occasional acerbic or sarcastic barb. Because of the length (and depth) of the excerpts, this is a great little book to just sit and read (as I did nearly as soon as I got it for Christmas). As the editors say themselves, if you like that kind of thing, it's exactly the kind of thing you'll like.