Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany

Those of you who know Jane Mount only from her colorful illustrations of shelved and stacked book spines might be surprised—as I was—that her new book of literary "miscellany" is as miscellaneous as it is, full not only of her trademark spines but of profiles of bookstores and libraries, lists of recommended reading, and general celebrations of bookishness in all its varieties. Whatever self-congratulatory preciousness you might fear would lie within such a project is overwhelmed by the warmth and open-eyed joy she makes you feel for the physical presence of books and the places they inhabit. To say her illustrations leap off the page is not quite right; rather, they remind you how much leaping can take place on a page.