Includes index

Part one : invitation to reading -- Behold a book -- The mind -- expanding potency of reading -- Reading to relax -- Without books, history is silent -- Rapid readers -- Vapid readers -- Read ... everywhere, everywhen -- Books -- a boon to old and young -- Great leaders ... great readers -- Books of our own -- Books for all : public libraries -- Lenders beware! -- Aberrant booklove : bibliomania and book gluttony -- Book lover's lament : so little time to read -- Part two : the art of the pen -- The mystique of authorship -- The writer's life : a blend of ecstasy and torment -- The power of words -- Literary genres -- The writer's resources -- Writers as readers -- Advice and solace from the masters -- Part three : the literary establishment -- Publishers and authors : a friendly tug of war -- Writing : a scant sustenance -- Editorial headaches : hazardous guesses -- Criticizing the critic -- The retail end : bookshops, antiquarians, auctioneers -- Book banners -- Book burners -- Part four : the book in America -- freedom to think, to write, to be informed -- A nation of readers -- Benjamin Franklin : an early American booster of books -- Tom Paine's pamphlets : a clarion call to independence -- The nation established : reading expands, learning flourishes -- Three pioneer American bookmen -- The book that roused the nation

From the writings of the great, the near-great, and the would-be-great, a delicious selection of quotes and anecdotes on that most dangerous of afflictions--the passion for books and reading

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