Bexley library users – a wise and erudite bunch, as you’d expect – recently voted for their `Best Book of the Year`…(Louise, a Sidcup reader says “a massive thank-you, Bexley Libraries, I`ve just finished your prize-winner, it’s the best book I've ever read!”)
They chose a novel by Geraldine Brooks called `The People of the Book`. It’s a wonderful, sweeping, life-enhancing story and its central character is … wait for it…a book!
A rare medieval manuscript, passed down the generations, hidden, repaired, stolen, coveted. What a story it tells, and it leads the Blogbrary to think…If a Bexley library book today could tell a story of its life, what would it say? Or, even more illuminating, what would it report back about the people it’s been borrowed by and living with? If only books could talk!…
(Be warned, dear readers of a delicate disposition, Library staff do find some very odd things which have been used – we presume – as bookmarks, but that’s another story…)
Meanwhile, if you want to try our `Best Book of the Year` do read `The People of the Book`…It’ll remind you that books have lives, just like the people who read them! (Its hero is a Librarian, by the way, but that’s possibly an idea for a future Blog?…)
Give it a go, and if you do enjoy it, please let us know – post your comments below. (Just remember, though, please be very careful what you tell us you use as a bookmark…)
TTFN
10 comments:
Yes I enjoyed this book very much too - also learnt a lot about book binding!
Yes, you're right - the art (or is it science?) of bookbinding was a fascinating part of the book...It might not sound exciting, but it was - honest!
When a book is really good you are entertained and learn something...about book binding and objects as bookmarks In my long life in libraries the most extraordinary things used as bookmarks have been a small steel ashtray, a doctor's prescribing pad, an invite to join a coven....in Welling and £150(reclaimed!)
A coven? At Welling?...
Well I never.
I loved People of the Book. It's one of those books that gets into your head and stays there. I found all of the characters really appealing and found it difficult to move on to each new story because I didn't want to leave any of the characters behind.
Oh, and I want the main character's job!
A really worthy winner - don't forget it's time to nominate again for our 2010 Book of the Year. Just go to the Read & Relax page on Bex-L. And keep nominating until the end of the year.
From Terri, re the lost money...
£150? Wonder if that was the same one I know about? We had a very panicky phone call from a wife who had returned library books, unaware that her husband had tucked all his wages in a safe place - under the flyleaf of his library book! The book had already been loaned to someone else - who fortunately was honest enough to return it.
Alas, I haven't read the book yet, but am responding to encouragement to share anecdotal bookmarks. My favourite (albeit sinister) one was the substantial chunk of rabbit fur found in a book on keeping rabbits. Guess how nervous I was next time a customer returned a book on keeping goldfish!
Yes, I have enjoyed People of the Book too. (All her books are great reads, and I suggest that you try Year of Wonders as well, that was a wonderful novel)
H
Geraldine Brooks here, just writing to say that I am so pleased you are enjoying People of the Book. After I write it, I heard from a book conservator who had found a dessicated flea corpse in the binding of a 17th century medical book on bubonic plague. Of course he had the flea tested, and yes, it carried the yersinia pestis bacillus. Well, I thought to myself: You couldn't make that up.
Thanks, Geraldine – it’s great to hear from the author in person. I`m delighted that more and more Bexley readers are discovering your books…And, just to re-assure them…there are no recorded instances of bubonic plague infested fleas in any of our books!...
Best wishes from all in Bexley.
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