Compulsively Aimless

One sign of bibliomania is buying books about books.  I've always been conflicted about this.  I'd rather be reading actual books themselves than spending time reading about reading.  Here's my list of meta-books. 1.  A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting , Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for and Appreciating Books (1999).  The subtitle says it all.  Bought used at Valley Books, Amherst, MA.      2.  The List of Books, A Library of over 3,000 works, Frederick Raphael and Kenneth McLeish (1981).  One of the most thoughtful list of books assembled.  Lists by category, best books of the decade.  Specific symbols denoting books of special interest.  Birthday gift 1981.  3.  The Lifetime Reading Plan, Clifton Fadiman (1960).   Fadiman outlines a plan for reading your way through the great minds of Western civilization.  Bought...

Part two of the Eclectic travel collection. 1.  Once Around Lightly, Robert St. John (1969).  St, John was a radio broadcaster from the 1940s.  He travels from Japan to southern Asia, Indonesia, India, through the Khyber pass into Afghanistan ending in Iran.   Bought used at the State Department bookstore. 2.  Whereabouts: Notes on Being A Foreigner, Alastair Reid (1987).  Are you a foreigner by necessity, accident, or choice?  Reid explores the aspects of what is like to be an outsider.  He travelers to places of his past looking for lost connections but finds himself a stranger.   Bought used somewhere.  3.  Urbane Travellers 1591-1635, Boies Penrose (1942).   Sketches of English travelers.   Traces the beginnings of English travel.  Bought used somewhere. 4.  Places, James Morris (1972).    Morris writes about American cities and remote islands.  Illustrated with Mo...