Mommy Brain

Bibliotopia: or, Mr. Gilbar’s Book of Books & Catch-all of Literary Facts & Curiosities is a book for book-lovers. Steven Gilbar is also the author of Reading in Bed: Personal Essays on the Glories of Reading and Published & Perished: Memoria, Eulogies, & Remembrances of American Writers.

This book is a miscellany of odd facts about books and literature in general, from lists of award winners to favorite quotes from several authors to a list of common diminutives used in Russian novels (so you can keep all those characters straight) to lists of authors graduated from various colleges to…well, you get the picture. Along with giving me some titles to add to my huge to-be-read list, this book was a perfect read for some scattered days spent in and out of orthodontist and eye doctor waiting rooms and rare moments of stolen reading time.

Here are a few favorite tidbits:

The Reader’s Bill of Rights:
~The right to not read
~The right to skip pages
~The right to not finish
~The right to reread
~The right to read anything
~The right to escapism
~The right to read anywhere
~The right to browse
~The right to read out loud
~The right to not defend your tastes

-from Daniel Penner, Better Than Life (1994)

“Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself – it is the occurring which is difficult.”
~Stephen Leacock

Mr. Gilbar also includes lists of memorable opening and closing lines that I plan to post as a quiz sometime in the next week – when I find the time!