From The Library Of ...

This picture is from Kino's page

As a self-proclaimed book lover, I am very slow at discovering "Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader." Yeah sure I've heard about it, but I've never made an effort to find out about it. Even a first time encounter on the special display table in Kinokuniya Suria KLCC didn't spark my curiosity. I merely fondled it and put it back where it was.

Then during the second last week of July, I finished "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay and was desperate for a new book to read. I was a little stingy this month but Friday was pay-day and I still have about RM 65 in my bank account. Thus I decided to splurge, probably on a Malay book or two; DBP published a few new interesting titles but thanks to Dawama's reputation, they're not yet available at Kino, my favorite bookstore just because it's very convenient to pop in and out during lunch break.

Didn't find any of interest thus I walked into the English Literature section. I saw a tall middle-aged Caucasian man grabbing a copy of Ex-Libris and was quickly reminded about it. Hence I reached for one as well. The man was halfway away from the table but he turned back and upon seeing me trying to decipher the synopsis on the back cover, he quickly said, "That is one amazing book. I've given away probably a dozen copies to my friends."

Not only that, he also pointed out the continuation of the book, "At Large and At Small" also by Anne Fadiman. "If you like books and reading, you would like this. But I definitely started with that (Ex Libris)."

I was immediately sold. I have found a book to read for the week. Or so I thought.

Ex Libris is very thin, I could have finished it in a course of an afternoon but I decided to stop whenever I felt like I was rush-reading.

A few days back I read an article in The Guardian about slow-reading. Apparently the cyber era has changed the general reading style - we skim and scan instead of reading the whole text. That reduces our attention span and some would say, makes us stupider.

I am guilty of all accusations. It took me a whole day to read about half of the article and I had to finish it at home after work because I forced myself to read every single word a few times whenever I felt like my focus was wavering.

Anyway, Ex Libris was a joy to read. It encompassed Fadiman's fascination and addiction with books, and how they are integrated in her life as a child growing up in a family of bibliophiles, being a writer, a wife to a writer then a mother to two young children.

I experienced a pang of envy as Fadiman and her husband married off their libraries and only then considered themselves truly "married." I wished for a husband such as hers as he took her on a secret trip to a used-bookstore and bought 19 pounds of dusty used books on her 42nd birthday. And I hope I would be as patient and interested in my future children early education as Fadiman and her husband read to theirs every night.

Fadiman also talked about how reading and books defined her relationships with her parents and younger brother. Her dad turned blind and she read to him as he read to her when she was little. She mentioned about plagiarism, and how it had hurt her mother (who was plagiarized by her editor at Time magazine). Fadiman also kept mentioning how her kid brother was smarter than she was.

My personal favorite is her essay on a missed pronunciation of "Ms." during a job interview. It was hilarious at first but then Fadiman went deep at dissecting gender issues. It was a revelation to learn at how women were considered as the lesser gender during those days (it doesn't stop yet, does it?).

What an experience to savor such a delicious book. It reminds me of the joy of (slow) reading again. To continue, I'm determined to concentrate on classics for a while; just got a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Penguin) and The Complete Novels and Stories of Sherlock Holmes (Bantam) - I just realized I bought the second volume, dang now I have slow down on Alice and go get the Volume I first! Oh well.



Trivia: Ex Libris is Latin for "From the library of" - back in the days when people used to have bookplates.