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Brought to Book
Brought to Book sets out to explode the myth that books are a closed, escapist world. Brought to Book spans the spectrum of reading rituals and fetishism,: stealing, eating and cooking books; books as status symbols, food for termites, aids to seduction and espionage; books associated with journeys, salling in and out of love, imprisonment and freedom; books and their relationship with war, death, religion, sex, night and day dreams.
The 12 international contributors to this original and hugely entertaining anthology include many of the sharpest creative talents working today: novelists Brian Aldiss, Rikki Ducornet, Beryl Gilroy, William Gibson, Iain Sinclair and Lynne Tillman; poets Ivor Cutler, David Gascoyne, Selma Hill and Robert Nye; artists Glen Baxter, David Mach and Ed Ruscha; musicians Kevin COyne and Ron Geesin; photographers Martin Parr and Jean Fraser; biographers and essayists Michael Holroyd and Marcel Berlins.
All recount, in words and pictures, how comic, tragic, erotic, mysterious or bizarre personal experiences have made extraordinary connections between books and the world around them. They bear witness that the books we possess simultaneously possess us too.
The 12 international contributors to this original and hugely entertaining anthology include many of the sharpest creative talents working today: novelists Brian Aldiss, Rikki Ducornet, Beryl Gilroy, William Gibson, Iain Sinclair and Lynne Tillman; poets Ivor Cutler, David Gascoyne, Selma Hill and Robert Nye; artists Glen Baxter, David Mach and Ed Ruscha; musicians Kevin COyne and Ron Geesin; photographers Martin Parr and Jean Fraser; biographers and essayists Michael Holroyd and Marcel Berlins.
All recount, in words and pictures, how comic, tragic, erotic, mysterious or bizarre personal experiences have made extraordinary connections between books and the world around them. They bear witness that the books we possess simultaneously possess us too.
- GenresBooks About Books
Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Ian Breakwell
18 booksIan Breakwell was an English artist, diarist, film-maker, and author.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 2, 2019
The title is from one of the articles here which made a play of the word “book” (the noun) and “book” (the verb, as in book for a crime).
A collection of vignettes, anecdotes, tidbits and what-have-you about books: those who read them, those who write them, those who hate or love them, from known authors to just the ordinary you and me who have anything, something, to tell about how books have somehow change their lives for better or for worse.
Had I been a contributor here I would have written about how I, when just a young boy of around ten years, while living in an island town with no libraries or bookstore, started my love affair with books when my father (long gone) once came home from his work as a policeman in a city, bringing home some titles, one of which was Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” and of how, decades after, I still remember the book’s first sentence, telling me, the reader, that I would not know him (Huck Finn) if I had not met yet the other character (or book) called “Tom Sawyer.” This did not dissuade me from plodding on, however, still remembering too how I got transfixed with the tale, imagining this boy Huck Finn and the runaway slave and the mighty Mississippi River, and the adventures they’ve had. The first full-length novel I’ve read and, fortunately, tremendously enjoyed.
Here, there are much better stories, some funny, a few of them informative, a couple of them poignant and sad. To whet the appetite, the Introduction has compiled several interesting trivia like:
1. that about the Persian vizier, Abdul Kassem who travelled the desert by camel with his huge collection of books and which his librarians could quickly lay hands on any desired volume since the animals had been trained to walk in alphabetical order;
2. that a BIBLIOKLEPT is one who steals books; a BIBLIOCLAST is one who cuts pages out of them; while a GRANGERISER is one who sticks things into them; and
3.that the first paper book in the world, a 1,600-year-old Coptic psalter, was found in a grave near Cairo tucked beneath the head of a 12-year-old girl.
How about the articles themselves? One I did dog-ear, by Frida Stamp entitled “Tit for Tat.” Here she tells a short story of how, one morning, two men in suits knocked at her door, inviting her to talk about the “greatest story ever told”—the Bible. They said they are interested in her sharing her thoughts about it , if any, whereupon, she blurted out:
“Indeed I do. I think throughout the centuries this particular book has had a significant and predominantly baleful effect on millions of people’s thoughts and behaviour, and has been a major cause of bigotry, intolerance and repression, resulting in draconian legal statutes, puritanical moral codes, censorship, sexual misery, hypocrisy, guilt and mental illness, sectarian strife, civil war, colonial invasion, persecution, forcible indoctrination, torture, bloodshed and genocide, all tormented by the same self-righteous missionary zeal which you now display on my doorstep. And now, if you don’t mind, I must get on with my housework, and the devil only knows how I’ll get it done if I stand here talking all morning, so I’ll bid you good day.”
“That’s the marvellous thing about book learning,” she wrote, “you can answer them back.”
A collection of vignettes, anecdotes, tidbits and what-have-you about books: those who read them, those who write them, those who hate or love them, from known authors to just the ordinary you and me who have anything, something, to tell about how books have somehow change their lives for better or for worse.
Had I been a contributor here I would have written about how I, when just a young boy of around ten years, while living in an island town with no libraries or bookstore, started my love affair with books when my father (long gone) once came home from his work as a policeman in a city, bringing home some titles, one of which was Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” and of how, decades after, I still remember the book’s first sentence, telling me, the reader, that I would not know him (Huck Finn) if I had not met yet the other character (or book) called “Tom Sawyer.” This did not dissuade me from plodding on, however, still remembering too how I got transfixed with the tale, imagining this boy Huck Finn and the runaway slave and the mighty Mississippi River, and the adventures they’ve had. The first full-length novel I’ve read and, fortunately, tremendously enjoyed.
Here, there are much better stories, some funny, a few of them informative, a couple of them poignant and sad. To whet the appetite, the Introduction has compiled several interesting trivia like:
1. that about the Persian vizier, Abdul Kassem who travelled the desert by camel with his huge collection of books and which his librarians could quickly lay hands on any desired volume since the animals had been trained to walk in alphabetical order;
2. that a BIBLIOKLEPT is one who steals books; a BIBLIOCLAST is one who cuts pages out of them; while a GRANGERISER is one who sticks things into them; and
3.that the first paper book in the world, a 1,600-year-old Coptic psalter, was found in a grave near Cairo tucked beneath the head of a 12-year-old girl.
How about the articles themselves? One I did dog-ear, by Frida Stamp entitled “Tit for Tat.” Here she tells a short story of how, one morning, two men in suits knocked at her door, inviting her to talk about the “greatest story ever told”—the Bible. They said they are interested in her sharing her thoughts about it , if any, whereupon, she blurted out:
“Indeed I do. I think throughout the centuries this particular book has had a significant and predominantly baleful effect on millions of people’s thoughts and behaviour, and has been a major cause of bigotry, intolerance and repression, resulting in draconian legal statutes, puritanical moral codes, censorship, sexual misery, hypocrisy, guilt and mental illness, sectarian strife, civil war, colonial invasion, persecution, forcible indoctrination, torture, bloodshed and genocide, all tormented by the same self-righteous missionary zeal which you now display on my doorstep. And now, if you don’t mind, I must get on with my housework, and the devil only knows how I’ll get it done if I stand here talking all morning, so I’ll bid you good day.”
“That’s the marvellous thing about book learning,” she wrote, “you can answer them back.”
February 14, 2017
Nasciamo tutti "lettori", ci crediamo scrittori, si diventa bibliofili, finiamo bibliomani nella biblioteca della vita ...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews