For the bibliophiles among us, here's my favorite passage from an essay by Christopher Morley on visiting bookshops. Many thanks to
Greg Ruby and the Fourth Garrideb blog. Be sure to read the complete essay online. -Editor
There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love, and like that colossal adventure it is an experience of
great social import. Even as the tranced swain, the book-lover yearns to tell others of his bliss. He writes letters about it, adds it to
the postscript of all manner of communications, intrudes it into telephone messages, and insists on his friends writing down the title of
the find. Like the simple-hearted betrothed, once certain of his conquest, “I want you to love her, too!” It is a jealous passion also. He
feels a little indignant if he finds that any one else has discovered the book, too. He sees an enthusiastic review—very likely in The New
Republic—and says, with great scorn, “I read the book three months ago.” There are even some perversions of passion by which a book-lover
loses much of his affection for his pet if he sees it too highly commended by some rival critic.
To read the complete article, see:
Christopher Morley at 125 – “On Visiting
Bookshops” (http://fourthgarrideb.com/2015/05/christopher-morley-at-125-on-visiting-bookshops/)
Wayne Homren, Editor
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