This anthology sets out to explode the myth that books are a closed, escapist world. It spans the spectrum of reading rituals and fetishism: stealing, eating and cooking books; books as status symbols, food for termites, aids to seduction and espionage; books associated with journeys, falling in and out of love, imprisonment and freedom; books and their relationship with war, death, religion, sex, night and day dreams. The 125 international contributors to this anthology include: novelists Brian Aldiss, Rikki Ducornet, Beryl Gilroy, William Gibson, Iain Sinclair and Lynne Tillman; poets Glen baxter, David Mach and Ed Ruscha; musicians Kevin Coyne and Ron Geesin; photographers Martin Parr and Jean Fraser; biographers and essayists Michael Holroyd and Marcel Berlins. All recount, in words and pictures, how comic, tragic, erotic, mysterious or bizarre personal experiences have made extraordinary connections between books and world around them. They bear witness that the books we possess simultaneously possess people too.