Ian Sansom (1) (1966–)

In Israel Armstrong’s life libraries had been a constant part of his world. A place he was destined to be a part of his whole life. He had schooled for it, he then found full-time positions few and far between. To fill time he worked in a discount bookstore.

An offer of the position of District Branch Librarian in Northern Ireland has brought Israel across from England on and 18 hour journey by coach and ferry, only to be greeted by locked doors and a posting on the library door. Library Closed.

Is this to be the beginning of a nightmare, and adventure or a joke? He needed this job and it was no joke.

Israel meets Lind Wei, Deputy Head of Entertainment, Leisure and Community Services, the person he had spoken to earlier. It seems the council had a wee change of plans. The building is to be redeveloped. Library services are to be transitioned to a mobile system…a bookmobile! They are pulling the old bookmobile out of mothballs and bringing it back!

There are a few snags: the van is over 25 years old and been in storage for the last three years in a barn. It needed “freshening-up”…as in paint, tune-up, battery, alternator, air filter, fuel filter…. Oh, and all the books are missing…or are they?

Israel’s accommodations weren’t that great either. A chicken coop on George’s family farm — not the most fragrant surroundings or warm.

The characters, the events, the surroundings make for an entertaining read. Israel’s exposure to small town living in Ireland, with humour and feelings, leads him to find there is more to life besides his bad luck and books. There are people and events to care about that make life worthwhile.… (más)

Well, I want to say that a book on paper is just as dull as it sounds. Yet, a book on paper is exactly the sort of nerdy thing that appeals to me. However, in this case---meh.

There were a few interesting parts but, like many of the "biographies of things" I come across, the author includes every bit of every random detail possible and takes lengthy jaunts in odd directions in order to fill pages. So, rather than being exciting and interesting, I found many parts to be dull and droning.

Still, some parts that I did like:

I was especially intrigued by the descriptions and histories of board games. I had no idea that paper board games were so old and that there were games like Monopoly that predate it. I'd love to get a hold of some of these neat Victorian board games!

I also loved his description of how he will go with shoddy clothes and bills owed in order to make sure he's got books. This is true Bibliomania---an ailment I suffer from without much suffering.

...and then there's the part where he used the word "phantasmagoric" by the third page. Anyone who can work that into a sentence deserves a good pat on the back! http://www.belleslibrary.com/2015/06/the-autobiography-of-mrs-tom-thumb-by.html… (más)

This is a history of paper. Not just paper, including how its made (pretty much the same as it has been for hundreds of years, except now by machines instead of by hand), but it also looks at the histories of various items made with paper: books, games and puzzles, origami, art, and more.

The intro started off really interesting, also taking us through a day without paper. The rest of the book – though it had some interesting tidbits -- just wasn’t quite as good. There was a lot of references to literature and art, and that kind of lost my interest there. Overall, though, I’m rating it “ok”, but I feel like that might be a bit generous.… (más)

This is the fourth in the Moblie Library Mystery series and while this isn't my favorite I still found it entertaining. This series features a very quirky main character, an English Jewish vegetarian mobile librarian in Northern Ireland who keeps finding himself involved in rather unusual circumstances. In this case, he lends a book from the mobile library (a Philip Roth) to a 14 year old girl who disappears a short time later. The plot is rather thin but it provides the reader with some laughs and gives Sansom the opportunity to feature a serious topic, the efforts to restrict the availability of certain books to the "impressionable".… (más)