18 JULY 1931, Page 26

A delightful and plenteous feast is provided by Mr. Holbrook

Jackson in The Anatomy of Bibliomania (Soncino Press, Vol. II:, 28s.). -The author, with it wealth of 'references and anecdote from every conceivable-source, writes of bibliophily and its aggravated form of bibliomania, of the book-thief Whom chained volumes used to baulk of his prey, of the book-, ghoul who in the mad passion of grangeritis will despOil• volumes of plates and facsimiles. He sings of the joys and triumphs of the bookhunter, and, lauding good binding, chants of curious bindings as in human skin. He bids you beware of the enemies of hooks—gas, flies, blackbeetles, dusting ser- vants, and bookbinders who cruelly clip the edges of well- loved tomes, and he pillories people like Wordsworth whom De Quincey observed pick up a butter-knife and " tear his way into the heart of the volume with this knife, that left its greasy honours behind it on every page." If you love books (and Mr. Jackson wants none other for his readers) here is a rare joint waiting for you, at which you may cut and come again to your profit, titillation and general enrichment, and if you would guard this volume against the biblioklept, write in it :

" Thys boke is one, And God's curse is smother ; They that take the one God geve them the other.