Bookworm

The classic bibliophile loves to read, admires and collects books,{{efn-ua|Of course, a bookworm is an insect that eats books. The term "bookworm" is often used as a metaphor to describe a voracious reader, an indiscriminate reader, or a bibliophile. In its earliest iterations, it had a negative connotation—that is, it denoted an idler who read rather than worked. Over the years its meaning has drifted in a more positive direction.{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/is-the-meaning-of-bookworm-positive-or-negative |title=Is 'bookworm' positive or negative? |publisher=Merriam Webster |access-date=June 18, 2019}} Another meaning of the word is "a person who pays more attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit."{{cite web |url=https://www.synonym.com/synonyms/bookworm |title=Bookworm |work=synonyms |access-date=June 19, 2019}}}} and often amasses a large and specialized collection. Bibliophiles usually possess books they love or that hold special value, as well as old editions with unusual bindings, autographed, or illustrated copies. Holzenberg, Eric. "The Bibliophile as Bibliographer". The papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 104.4 (2010): 421–431. "Bibliophile" is an appropriate term for a minority of those who are book collectors.Carter, John, Nicolas Barker and Simran Thadani. 2016. John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors, p.45. Ninth ed. New Castle Delaware: Oak Knoll Press''.

According to Arthur H. Minters, the "private collecting of books was a fashion indulged in by many Romans, including Cicero and Atticus".{{cite book|title=Collecting Books for Fun and Profit|last=Minters|first=Arthur H.|location=New York|publisher=Arco Publishing Inc.|year=1979|isbn=0-668-04598-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/collectingbooksf0000mint

}} The term bibliophile entered the English language in 1820.{{Cite Merriam-Webster|bibliophile|accessdate=2022-07-01}} A bibliophile is to be distinguished from the much older notion of a bookman (which dates back to 1583), who is one who loves books, and especially reading; more generally, a bookman is one who participates in writing, publishing, or selling books.{{Cite Merriam-Webster|bookman|accessdate=2022-07-01}}

Lord Spencer and the Marquess of Blandford were noted bibliophiles. "The Roxburghe sale quickly became a foundational myth for the burgeoning secondhand book trade, and remains so to this day"; this sale is memorable due to the competition between "Lord Spencer and the marquis of Blandford [which] drove [the price of a probable first edition of Boccaccio's Decameron up to the astonishing and unprecedented sum of £2,260".{{cite journal|last=Connell|first=Philip|title=Book Collecting: Cultural Politics, and the Rise of Literary Heritage in Romantic Britain|journal=Representations|year=2000|volume=71|pages=24–47|doi=10.1525/rep.2000.71.1.01p00764}} J. P. Morgan was also a noted bibliophile. In 1884, he paid $24,750 ($772,130.92, adjusted for inflation for 2021){{Cite web |title=The Inflation Calculator |url=https://westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi?money=24750&first=1884&final=2021 |access-date=2022-06-20 |website=westegg.com}} for a 1459 edition of the Mainz Psalter.{{cite book|last=Basbanes|first=Nicholas|author-link=Nicholas A. Basbanes|title=A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books|year=1995|publisher=Henry Holt|location=New York}}

{{Portal|Books}}

File:Henry David Thoreau - The Bibliophile Society.jpg]]

• Book collecting
• Bibliophobia
• Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles, UK
• United States:
• Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies
• Antiquarian book trade in the United States
• The Book Club of Detroit
• Caxton Club, Chicago
• The Club of Odd Volumes, Boston
• Grolier Club, New York
• Bibliophile mailing list

;Similar terms

• Audiophilia
• Cinephilia
• Comicphilia
• Infophilia
• Telephilia
• Videophilia

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• {{cite book |author=Merriam-Webster, Inc. |title=Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary |edition=10th |year=1996 |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Inc. |location=Springfield, Mass |isbn=0-87779-709-9 }}

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?67215-1/gentle-madness Booknotes interview with Nicholas Basbanes on A Gentle Madness, October 15, 1995], C-SPAN}}

• Bulletin du Bibliophile (1834-) [http://data.bnf.fr/32726854/bulletin_du_bibliophile__1834_/ Bulletin du bibliophile (1834)]. Since 1963 published by the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie.
• Richard de Bury (1902). The Love of Books: "The Philobiblon" translated by E. C. Thomas. London: Alexander Moring
• Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1809). Bibliomania. New York, Henry G. Bohn.
• Harper, H. H. (1904) "[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22605 Book-Lovers, Bibliomaniacs and Book Clubs]" The Riverside Press, Cambridge
• Holzenberg, Eric. "The Bibliophile as Bibliographer". The papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 104.4 (2010): 421–431.
• Andrew Lang (1881). The Library. London, Macmillan & Co.
• Purcell, M. (2019). [https://lithub.com/the-role-of-librarians-in-a-historical-age-of-obsession/ The Role of Librarians in a Historical Age of Obsession]. Literary Hub.
• Rugg, Julie (2006). A Book Addict's Treasury. London: Frances Lincoln {{ISBN|0-7112-2685-7}}
• Stebbins, Robert A. (2013). The Committed Reader: Reading for Utility, Pleasure, and Fulfillment in the Twenty-First Century. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

• {{Commonscat-inline}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|bibliophilia}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070914134621/http://members.forbes.com/fyi/2005/1212/162.html Forbes article] on bibliomania, by Finn-Olaf Jones, December 12, 2005] (archived 14 September 2007)

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Category:Antiquarian booksellers

Category:Reading (process)