Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet (Overlook Press, 2012)

I once shared Bonnet's disinclination to part with a book once I had acquired it, but that was before I had a family, which Bonnet does not mention having, and needed the space for other things, such as toys.  Although Susan and I still have thousands of books we have winnowed them out considerably as we have moved several times.  Now I only acquire a few books a year -- those that are meaningful to me -- as I use the library more and more.  We have a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library near our apartment and they have no limit on how many times one can renew a book unless it has been requested, so I can keep a book until I am ready to read it, most of the books I borrow not being particularly popular.

When people visited us they use to say things such as "how many of these books have you guys read?" (most of them) or "do you guys like to read?"(yes) but now we hear such questions less often, as fewer people seem to be reading fewer books, probably because of the lure of the internet.  Most of Bonnet's book is devoted to obscure titles in obscure languages and how he obtained them and the problems in arranging them.  Though I did pass reading exams in Latin, German, and French in order to receive my graduate degree in art history I admit to having few books in languages other than English and I admit to a certain envy of my great-grandfather, who read Latin and Greek for pleasure every night (from the ages of 11 to 13 his studies were entirely devoted to Latin).

Bonnet devotes too little time to the books he likes and the pleasures of reading, so obsessed is he with tracking down and collecting obscure volumes.  When he does take time to talk about the pleasures of reading he effectively conveys how books can evoke other times and other places:  War and Peace, The Alexandria Quartet, Moby-Dick, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Bonnet devotes most of his time to private libraries, particularly his own, but does briefly discuss public libraries and institutional libraries.  I recommend Adam Gopnik's article on the library of the Warburg Institute in London in the March 16 The New Yorker for what the future might hold for such libraries.