Of the books I had Amazon deliver to my parents’ house, the only one I couldn’t resist diving into right away was Anne Fadiman’s book of essays, At Large and At Small.
My biggest complaint is that it’s too short.
There are three books I find myself constantly recommending to everyone, for values of “everyone” meaning “people I enjoy recommending books to”: people who love books, words, ideas and the connections between them. (I recommend other books to other people too, but in those cases I tailor recommendations more carefully.) Those three are Douglas Hofstadter’s Le Ton Beau de marot, Freedom and Necessity by Emma Bull & Steven Brust, and Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. That’s why I was so happy to read about Fadiman’s latest book of essays, and why I promptly ordered it.
At Large and At Small is similar in feel to Ex Libris and is even packaged to match it. Essay topics include essays themselves and their practitioner Elia (Charles Lamb); his buddy Samuel Taylor Coleridge; moving to a rural town; larks vs owls (early vs late risers); collecting butterflies, and the personal effects of tragedy. I think there’s a little less about books than in the first colume, but there’s more on essays to balance that. I’ll still recommend Ex Libris to anyone who loves books, but I’ll definitely be recommending At Large and At Small to anyone who loves Ex Libris.
In other news, our trip to the USA is described in more detail on the travel blog (with a few pictures, even). And Rudder and I will celebrate our 14th anniversary tomorrow. (Crap. Our favorite restaurant isn’t open on Wednesdays.)