Product Description

In this tenth-anniversary edition of the much-loved Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction, author Tom Raabe takes a humorous look at the all-consuming love of books and has updated the information within by discussing the ever-mutating new E-landscape and its effects on fellow biblioholics everywhere. Have you ever awakened the morning after a book-buying spree and been unable to remember how many volumes you bought or how much you spent? Have you ever been reprimanded or fired for reading on the job? Have you ever purchased or rented additional living space just for your books? If you answer "yes" to any or all of these questions, don't worry. You are not alone. Your complete recovery awaits you-just buy one more book!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #663246 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 223 pages

Midwest Book Review
Have you ever awakened the morning after a book-buying spree, unable to remember how many you bought or how much you spent? Have you ever been reprimanded or fired for reading on the job? Have you ever purchased or rented additional living space -- just for your books? Then you, like me, are a biblioholic! Tom Raabe's Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction is a unique and hilarious guide for book lovers of all degrees and intensities. This rollicking funny, all-to-true compendium of observations and do-it-yourself diagnostic tests is terrific reading and a grand chuckle.

From the Publisher
This humorous tenth-anniversary edition brings book addiction out of the closet.

Customer Reviews

Who, me? I can quit whenever I want to
Yeah, just like that - any time. Some people don't know their limits, but I can handle it. I just haven't felt like quitting since I was old enough to stop chewing the books and start looking at the pictures. But I could.

This comes across more as a series of essays sharing an ISBN than as a unified whole, even though each chapter deals with some aspect of the book bug. Some sections address the great eccentrics of history, hoarders who'd buy a new house when one filled up. Others describe the bookies themselves, from misers of the printed word to the biblioclasts who routinely tear the covers off for easier handling. The madness covers the gamut, from collectors who beggar themselves and their families for a precious edition to those who simply clean out a bookstore with a single gesture. Raabe describes those who display books as signs of erudition and others who simply panel a room with outward-facing bindings. Then, somewhat durprisingly, he mentions the folks who acutally read the darn things - possible the most incomprehensible of the lot. They include scholars who write (and occasionally read) within the closed world of scholarship, obsessively general omnivores (omnilectors?), and the ones who just want one-upmanship on the next megatrend.

Examples tip over into the silly more than once - natural enough, when the extreme cases display so much of the absurd. Raabe has researched his topic carefully and at length; his bibliography documents the page-passionate with dozens of sources. Although sometimes dry and repetitive, it captures extreme readers (and others) in all their peculiar glory, and cages them behind self-deprecatory humor. I have to admit, I saw myself in this book more than once. Not really, though: unlike those losers, I can quit any time I want to. Just not now.

-- wiredweird

I 'm normal!!!!!!
Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction

I have so many books that I was feeling such anxiety and embarrassment.
After reading this book, I feel "normal" and am proud of the variety of books I do read. It's a wonderful addiction!!!!!
Plus it's not expensive because I belong to swap book clubs.
But, if there is one I want and can't get, I buy enough from Amazon to get free shipping.
Thanks, TJ

Biblioholism Revisited
I know the author's brother and every time I see him I think of this book.
Each time I am in a book store, I think of this book. Amazon sends me Christmas cards because of my addiction to everything from the academic, a range of subjects, to the serious historical medieval murder mystery (I have to plug my two British favorites, Michael Jecks and Bernard Knight -- picture them as oarsmen on a galley, e.g. Viking long boat, but writing instead. Then picture me as the "drummer" keeping pace for them to row ... write). On one military move some years ago, I had > 5000 lbs. of books.
Am I a "bibliocholic?" You bet your bippy (for those remember how many decades back that goes). Get this book and enjoy!