Stories of Books and Libraries

by Jane Holloway (Editor)

Hardcover, 2023

Status

Available

Call number

PN6120.B7 S76

Genres

Fiction

Publication

Everyman's Library (2023), 400 pages

Description

For everyone who loves to read, a joyous bibliofest of stories about books and libraries (with authors, collectors, booksellers and even the odd publisher thrown in for good measure). Here are libraries modest, mobile, mystical (Borges of course) and magical (Helen Oyeyemi's enchanting 'Books and Roses'); public and private, provincial and prestigious. Little that happen in Elizabeth McCracken's eccentric library did not happen in real life -- even down to the murder; and it is rumoured that on 3 June 1997 the British Museum Reading Room really was visited by the ghost of Max Beerbohm's obscurest of poets, Enoch Soames... Reading, as the Queen informs an appalled private secretary, is 'untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting'. And also, of course, a lot of fun. Sit comfortably, then, and begin.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jillmwo

This anthology opens with a delightful short story by Ray Bradbury – a late-night conversation between a soldier on leave and his hometown librarian. The anthology closes with another Bradbury short story, one with a slightly darker note to the narrative, but displaying Bradbury’s very

evocative writing. In between there are selections from Seneca to Helene Hanff, from Reading Lolita in Tehran to The Well of Lost Plots. There were extracts from books I had never known existed, including the touching account from Everyman Remembers of how the Everyman’s Library book series got started. This in particular delighted me as I have a very real fondness for the series with multiple editions sitting on my shelves and had in fact wondered in passing about the history. For the record, I don’t think I will be passing this one on to a little Free Library anytime soon. I want to hold on to it (despite the fact that they went artistic on the book design, using a book cloth in a distressing seafoam shade rather than in the burgundy, navy or evergreen that is more traditional). I heartily recommend this. For me, the choices included in the anthology touched all the right emotional buttons. Some new (to me) content, some comfortably familiar content, a number of worthwhile extracts that I might never have thought about when reading the original texts. So I want in particular to acknowledge the editorial work of Jane Holloway in this volume. Artfully considered and well done!

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