The Night Bookmobile / Audrey Niffenegger

I stumbled across this graphic novel from 2010 quite by accident-- one of those serendipitous discoveries that happen when you work in a library. The Night Bookmobile is written (and illustrated--who knew?) by Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, and the title, The Night Bookmobile, was rather intriguing to this librarian. It was first serialized in the UK's Guardian newspaper.

Alexandra wanders the streets of Chicago in the hours before dawn after an argument with her partner. She stumbles upon a Winnebago camper parked on the roadside which she learns is the Night Bookmobile, "open dusk to dawn". Upon entering she discovers the shelves lined with every book she’s ever read in her lifetime. Her bookmobile is elusive, however, and only appears to her several times during her life. Understanding the premise of its existence and how the collection expands, she reads voraciously to fill the shelves of her own library of record with suitable titles, is motivated to become a librarian, but yearns to reconnect with her memories and her reading legacy by working in the Night Bookmobile herself.

The Night Bookmobile is not truly of the world of the living and only living people can be readers, so fill the shelves of your own personal bookmobile while you can. Is this book meant to be an admonishment to nonreaders, or a warning to obsessive readers not to forget to live life, and not just read about it? Whatever the message, read this thought-provoking book and add it to your own personal night bookmobile!

Comments

So Much for That / Lionel Shriver

This novel comes from the 2005 Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin , a disturbing book in which a parent with ambivalent feelings towards motherhood deals with the aftermath of a Columbine-style school killing perpetrated by her son. Lionel Shriver has said that she prefers to create characters that are hard to love, and So Much for That certainly contains some flinty characters, who although they may be hard to love, are nevertheless very believable. The topic this time is healthcare in America. Shep is all ready to launch into an exotic early retirement on the island of Pemba off the eastern coast of Africa, but when his wife reveals a diagnosis of mesothelioma, he must hold on to his job to maintain family health coverage to see her through her devastating illness. His work colleague and friend, Jackson, experiences a medical dilemma completely of his own doing, which proves to be his un doing. Jackson's daughter suffers from an unusual genetic disorde...

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating / Elisabeth Tova Bailey

The snail is a lowly creature, and probably one that most of us have never truly contemplated. The snail was probably a creature to which the author hadn't given much thought before a debilitating disease kept her confined to bed, practically immobile, for months and months. One day a friend put a woodland snail in a pot of violets on her nightstand. After being transported from the woods, the snail had emerged from its shell into the alien territory of my room, with no clue as to where it was or how it had arrived; the lack of vegetation and the desertlike surroundings must have seemed strange. The snail and I were both living in altered landscapes not of our choosing; I figured we shared a sense of loss and displacement. p 20 The companionship of this tiny creature is what sees her through the darkest days of her imprisonment by her horrible disease. The snail, thriving in its slow-mo existence and life of undemanding simplicity, provides interest and comfort to the author. ...

This Book Is Overdue! : How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All / Marilyn Johnson Click here to check availability in AFPLS This book is an interesting collection of essays that offer glimpses into the brave new world of librarianship. It’s sort of the antithesis of Nicholson Baker’s grumpy dissing of librarians in his 2001 book Doublefold . If you thought that librarians are still the be-bunned shushing ladies in wool skirts with reading glasses dangling around their necks on slender gold chains, then this book certainly is overdue for you. The author shows how librarians are morphing and adapting to the new information landscape, meeting new challenges with fewer resources and a public that wants instant gratification in clicks-and-mortar libraries. Meet librarians who offer triage reference services in streets filled with protesters and others who assume alternate identities and inhabit virtual libraries in the cyber universe called Second Life. Learn about how the venerable N...

Peachy Reads

Search This Blog