I have never heard this term “bibliomania” before, but from this article on it is now a part of my everyday vocabulary. After sharing this article with S, I had to go on to say that “Stealing books is criminal, stealing lingerie is erotic” not that I do either but the latter I can understand.
Anyways, here’s a fun read:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/7903230/The-love-of-the-high-end-heist.html
I just read “the library of babel” last night ( http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html ) and this morning saw these beautiful images. I remember when I was a child I saw “Beauty and the Beast”, after seeing the scene where the Beast reveals his library to her…I’ve always wanted to see a library like this…do you think things would be different if libraries were still made like this?
“Their name is execrated, but those who deplore the “treasures” destroyed by this frenzy neglect two notable facts. One: the Library is so enormous that any reduction of human origin is infinitesimal. The other: every copy is unique, irreplaceable, but (since the Library is total) there are always several hundred thousand imperfect facsimiles: works which differ only in a letter or a comma. Counter to general opinion, I venture to suppose that the consequences of the Purifiers’ depredations have been exaggerated by the horror these fanatics produced. They were urged on by the delirium of trying to reach the books in the Crimson Hexagon: books whose format is smaller than usual, all-powerful, illustrated and magical.” – Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel
“Truth, in fact, demands a precision, and Passion, a homeliness (the truly passionate will comprehend me), which are absolutely antagonistic to that Beauty which, I maintain, is the excitement or pleasurable elevation of the soul.” – Poe, The Philosophy of Composition
AMANDA LEHMAN-CHOI 