bibliomania bi:bli,o,mei.nia. [f. biblio- + Gr. mania madness, after Fr. bibliomanie. ] A rage for collecting and possessing books.
1734 T. Hearne Diary 9 Nov. (1921) XI. 389, I should have been tempted to have laid out a pretty deal of money without thinking my self at all touched with Bibliomania.
1750 Chesterf. Lett. 220 II. 348 Beware of the Bibliomanie.
1809 Dibdin (title) Bibliomania, or Book-madness; containing some account of the history, symptoms, and cure of this fatal disease.
1835 T. Hook G. Gurney (1850) II. i. 153 The bibliomania which appeared to engross my friend.
Bibliomania
Sunday, February 27, 2005 Crush - another puberty-as-monster comic, along with a mysterious past. Every teenager's paranoid fantasy: of course your parents aren't your real parents - that's exactly why they don't understand you
Emily pontificates @ 2:48:00 PM
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Saturday, February 26, 2005 The Broker, John Grisham - much of the success of what is largely a chase novel is that it doesn't read like a typical John Grisham. That said, it's an unremarkable airport thriller, and an ok way to pass an hour
Emily pontificates @ 8:37:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 23, 2005 The Monk , M. G. Lewis - one of the first 'Libertine Gothics' that shocked the 18th century public. Still fun to read
Emily pontificates @ 5:34:00 PM
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Digital Knight, Ryk E. Spoor - it's not an original idea, and Spoor tries to cover a little too much ground with his tale of vampires and werewolves in the real world. The basilisk-like creatures are a nice touch though, and the entire novel's a good bit of escapist fun
Emily pontificates @ 12:25:00 AM
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Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris - this is one I read some time ago and somehow forgot to put up here. I don't usually go for personal essays, or creative non-fiction, as it is, but sedaris has a way of making the most ordinary or embarrasing incidents amusing or meaningful. The brevity of each piece is another mark to his favor.
Emily pontificates @ 12:23:00 AM
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen - ignore the "classic" label on the front and read it anyway. It's the most fun I've had with part of the canon in years, because Austen satirizes a lot of the genreic cliches.
Emily pontificates @ 11:26:00 AM
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JLA: The Tenth Circle - the JLA goes up against vampires from hell.. this one really is just as bad as all the fanboys say it is - the plot's third rate shlock and the art is sub par. Skip this.
Emily pontificates @ 11:24:00 AM
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Once In A Blue Moon Volume 1 - another westernized manga with a plot lifted from at least one series I've already read (either The Mysterious Play, or Inu-Yasha; I can't recall exactly). It's not bad for a rehash, but neither the art nor the plot are paving new ground.
Emily pontificates @ 11:18:00 AM
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Thursday, February 10, 2005 Powers: Sellouts - I've grown increasingly disappointed with Powers, and the more I try to pin it down, the more I think that the style doesn't fit the content, in my mind. It's not so much the story itself (in this case a sex scandal and the destruction of the Vatican) as the way it's rendered, in garish colours, and angular linework. It's disconcerting (which I suspect is the intent), but also vaguely dissatisfying.
Emily pontificates @ 6:13:00 PM
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Flight Volume 1 - gorgeous. I have to buy this.. The title is the topic, and the contents are gorgeous, colourful short pieces by independant artists. Independent without the postmodern cynicism associated with underground independants. Lovely
Emily pontificates @ 6:11:00 PM
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100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed, Melissa P. - The chief virtue of this account seems to be its author's youth.. Beyond that, I have a number of inconcrete musings regarding the cultural effect of publication, thanks to my english background. Academia follows you everywhere.
Emily pontificates @ 8:35:00 PM
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Batgirl: Fists of Fury - a rather anemic collection of isolated issues that don't constitute a real arc. It also reprints bits from the Bruce Wayne: Fugitive crossover arc, which won't make any sense at all, if you haven't read the other pieces.
Emily pontificates @ 8:33:00 PM
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Monday, February 07, 2005 The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Ward Radcliffe - a heavy (literally) ponderous early gothic novel.. overwritten and obvious, there are texts that are more fun to read.
Emily pontificates @ 8:16:00 PM
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Friday, February 04, 2005 Nightingale's Lament: A Novel of the Nightside, Simon R. Green - the third Nightside novel is more of a straightforward mystery than the prior two, but still good fun. Green gets extra points for continuity, as there are several indications that the Nightside series is part of the same universe as Shadows Fall and Drinking Midnight Wine.
Emily pontificates @ 7:45:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005 Couriers - an ultraviolent innercity punk mercenary/communist thought-police shoot-up.
Emily pontificates @ 11:26:00 PM
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Shadows Fall, Simon Green - a large book, full of the fantastic and rather troubling for the use of Christian fanatics as one of the villianous groups. Green has a lot to work with, and even for 500 pages, he doesn't seem to tie up all the ends as completely as possible. Perhaps most interesting is that at the conclusion, this is a deeply religious book, reminiscent of both The Last Battle and That Hideous Strength.
Emily pontificates @ 11:20:00 PM
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About: I'm a former library worker (6+ years) currently employed as a secretary. I've a degree in English Literature, a certificate in Medieval and Renaissance studies,
and I dabble in medival and renaissance texts, comics, SF of all sorts, and the odd history/sociology book. This is my self-important record of what I read.
