Eight great books about books

Michele Filgate is an independent bookseller at Community Bookstore in Brooklyn. She is also a writer and critic, and has written for O, The Oprah Magazine, The Star Tribune, Bookslut, The Quarterly Conversation, The Brooklyn Rail, The Book Studio, Identity Theory, and other publications.

At The Daily Beast she tagged eight great books about books, including:

Phantoms On the Bookshelves
by Jacques Bonnet

Bonnet owns more than 40,000 books. It’s not the Library of Congress, but for a private collection, it’s pretty solid. In this slim ode to books, the author muses on the life of a serious reader—with Bonnet himself being the ultimate example. In only nine chapters, he talks about many aspects of book collecting: how to organize them, where to acquire them, and the idea of owning a working library rather than just collecting books. Bonnet brings an infectious enthusiasm to the genre. The written word is as important to his identity as his own memories: “To lose one’s books is to lose one’s past,” he says. His love of books is something serious readers can relate to: “I sometimes have the impression that I have really only existed through reading, and I would hope to die…with a book in my hand.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see John Sutherland's top 10 books about books.

--Marshal Zeringue