Reviews

This book is a bit strange, however I enjoyed a bunch of the quotable lines about libraries and librarians.... "I'm a cultural assembly line worker." "I like to see people losing their library virginity." "The Dewey system is a secret code invented by the Axis of Evil that binds books and librarians together in order to scare the reader off."

milivelikova's review

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3.0

This is a French book translated beautifully in English. It's basically a monologue of a librarian who comes to open her basement floor and finds a reader who had been locked overnight.

She starts talking at them and we learn a lot about her opinions..on the Dewey decimal system. On a man she's in love with called Martin. On her colleagues. On figures in french history and french literature.

There were some poignant lines about libraries as a public service, and the people who frequent them at different times. About how people come to the library to seek refuge, or entertainment.

I read it within an hour, it's 90 pages, so an easy and quick read. The lack of chapters made sense since it's meant to represent one long monologue.. but it made it a bit tiring as I felt as if the librarian was talking to me for an hour.

I'd say 3.5* - hardcore book lovers will enjoy it. For most people this can be a skip

pattydsf's review

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3.0

…the flow of paper, every year fifty thousand books fighting for the chance to come swell our groaning bookshelves, and every year they make me more aware of my limited span, my old age and my insignificance. p. 74-75

What a funny, little book. It was interesting to spend a few hours with the narrator of this novella. She is a librarian, a true devotee of books and libraries, who has finally found someone to listen to her opinions. Once she has captured a reader (who had fallen asleep in the library) and the reader holding the book, she wants us to know exactly how it is to work in a library. I never saw working in a library quite like she does, but it is amusing to hear her point of view.

Divry, the author, doesn’t let us know much about herself. So I have no idea what caused her to write this book. I imagine that she must have reasons for the strong feelings of her protagonist. Maybe she feels overwhelmed by the books in her life or maybe she has actually worked in a public library.

I have to say I am surprised that this short volume was ever published. At this point in time, many books are marketed to specific readers and I am not sure who the target audience is for this novel. I know that librarians may pick this up; another librarian read it and passed it on to me. However, a short book about unrequited love in a library seems to have a very small audience.

I recommend this to lovers of books, especially librarians. Don’t expect to love all that happens in this library, but it may make you look at your library with new eyes.

moviebuffkt's review against another edition

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2.0

Weird little book. Some of it very funny, and many astute observations about the crowd one finds in a library, but this is not a book I'll remember for years to come.

smcby's review against another edition

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informative lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

jacqui_des's review

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3.0

Memorable Quotes

"Being a librarian isn’t an especially high-level job, I can tell you. Pretty close to being in a factory. I’m a cultural assembly line worker. So what you need to know is, to be a librarian, you have to like the idea of classification, and to be of a docile nature. No initiative, no room for the unexpected; here, everything is in its place, invariably in its place."

"To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world."

"Love, for me, is something I find in books. I read a lot, it’s comforting. You’re never alone if you live surrounded by books."

"When I’m reading, I’m never alone, I have a conversation with the book. It can be very intimate. Perhaps you know this feeling yourself? The sense that you’re having an intellectual exchange with the author, following his or her train of thought and you can accompany each other for weeks on end."

"Well, isn’t an American a European who missed the boat home? I don’t go anywhere nowadays, myself."

"Book and reader, if they meet up at the right moment in a person’s life, it can make sparks fly, set you alight, change your life."

"The inexhaustible milk of human culture, right here, within our reach. Help yourself, it’s free. Borrow, because as much as accumulation of material things impoverishes the soul, cultural abundance enriches it."

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