Books: Worms' Turns

CARROUSEL FOR BIBLIOPHILES (400 pp.)—Edited by William Targ—Duschnes ($7.50).

This is a de luxe anthology written by bookworms for bookworms. The only wolf calls in its pages rise when a bug-eyed bibliomaniac spots an unescorted Gutenberg Bible or First Folio Shakespeare. With the knowingness of a convention of beekeepers discussing the nuptial flight of the queen, 40-odd bibliophiles talk about the designing, the collecting, the stealing and the forging of books. Some of the highlights:

Holbrook Jackson's essay about Books Bound in Human Skin, which tells of a Russian poet who had lost a leg in a hunting accident, and used the discarded...