Anne Fadiman’s “Ex Libris,” published in 1998, is a book I’ve bought a dozen or more copies of over the years to dispense among friends who are as passionate as I am about reading. It’s a series of 18 short personal essays about the author’s love of books. Fadiman is charming, witty, and the most erudite of authors. A warning, though: almost every other page contains a word you may never have seen before, which…