The book is “a sequence of variations on the experience of reading and on the book [as] a physical and imaginative object,” and is packed with little gems like this one where Wharton humanizes the lingo usually reserved for a book’s description.
“Corners bumped. Spine still straight, front part of head slightly faded and creased, with negligible hair. Endpapers missing. Minor damage to knees and ankles, stiff and inflexible in damp weather. Sporadic scribbling in margins throughout. Two-inch scar on stomach, some alterations to subtext. Several memories carefully excised, others foxed and unreliable. Otherwise fine.”
There is also this timely nugget on condensed books: “For those readers with no time for relaxed, contemplative involvement in fiction, this novel offers a delightful alternative. The substance of its original nine-hundred page bulk has been judiciously plucked, abridged, pulverized, filtered, dried and re-constituted; then this concentrated version has been repackaged in a contemporary and easily acceptable form.” I wonder if the folks at Orion Books, whose compact editions (pdf) of the classics which are billed as great reads “in half the time,” knew about this.
This is a book for the book people. A compilation of short fiction with the essence of books at its core. In each piece Wharton exudes a deep book sense and a clear appreciation of books and book lore.
Book Patrol puts it on the: Second Shelf
Details:
Wharton, Thomas. Logogryph: A Bibliography of Imaginary Books. Nova Scotia: Gaspereau Press, 2004. Smyth-sewn paperback with a letterpress printed dust jacket. Housed in a printed sleeve. Text was typeset by Andrew Steeves in Caslon types and printed on Rolland Zephyr Laid paper. Illustrations by Wesley Bates.
Shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award