Biblios = Books about Books Part 1: Books about Books–Better Known as Biblios Part 2 Bibilos Focusing on Booksellers/Collectors Part 3 Bibilos Focusing on Writers Part 4 Bibilos Focusing on Writers Part 5 Bibilos Focusing on Publishers Biblio–def.: ‘the Greek root for a variety of words referring to the book, such as bibliography, bibliomania, etc.’ I’ve often wondered how many books written throughout the centuries have books themselves as subjects. Bookstores, writers, publishers, editors, libraries, are all considered part of the biblio world. As my focus, as usual, is on crime fiction, I thought I’d wander through some titles I know that feature the written word. The first and one of the best that comes to mind is Booked to Die by John Dunning, and the subsequent
booked to die Archive
Why collect books? Why indeed. I asked myself the same question in the bathtub, snapping the binding of the latest Sue Grafton. I love to read but why bother to keep the book (just more clutter) let alone get a signature, put mylar on the dust jacket and place it it on a book shelf? The answer came to me as I as I saw the same Grafton double in price (this was quite some time ago–Graftons would not be valuable at the print run she has today), and friends proudly displaying their beautiful signed first editions. Hey, I read all of those books, loved them all, splattered water on them! The plain simple fact is reading a book with an autograph or inscription is much