An exuberant, expansive cataloging of the intimate physical relationship between a reader and a bookA way to leave a trace of us, who we were...

An exuberant, expansive cataloging of the intimate physical relationship between a reader and a book


A way to leave a trace of us, who we were or wanted to be, what we read and could imagine, what we did and what we left for you.

Readers of physical books leave traces: marginalia, slips of paper, fingerprints, highlighting, inscriptions. All books have histories, and libraries are not just collections of books and databases but a medium of long-distance communication with other writers and readers.
Letter to a Future Lover collects several dozen brief pieces written in response to library ephemera--with "library" defined broadly, ranging from university institutions to friends' shelves, from a seed library to a KGB prison library--and addressed to readers past, present, and future. Through these witty, idiosyncratic essays, Ander Monson reflects on the human need to catalog, preserve, and annotate; the private and public pleasures of reading; the nature of libraries; and how the self can be formed through reading and writing.

Author: Ander Monson
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 02/03/2015
Pages: 160
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.30w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781555977061


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/01/2014 pg. 74
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2014
Publishers Weekly 12/08/2014
Library Journal 02/15/2015 pg. 101
New York Times Book Review 05/24/2015 pg. 30
Library Journal 09/01/2014

About the Author

Ander Monson is the author of Vanishing Point, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Neck Deep and Other Predicaments. He edits DIAGRAM and the New Michigan Press. He lives in Tucson and teaches at the University of Arizona.

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