Hence the photos of libraries for illustration.
THE CATALOGUE OF LOST BOOKS: Christopher Columbus, His Son and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library by Edward Wilson-Lee look at how Hernando Colon’s two driving obsessions were shielding his father’s legend from detractors and rivals (which also had the practical effect of shielding the inheritance due to Colon as son of the great explorer) and building a stunning library, beyond almost any private library of the day and including stuff most collectors would dismiss (ballads and other pop-culture items).
This leads to a discussion of how in those pre-Dewey Decimal days a collector could organize a library when it became too big to rely on memory (the title refers to one of Colon’s indexes, listing 1,600 items that sank with the ship delivering them to him). I’d have liked this put in the context of other indexing and filing efforts (I know monastic libraries didn’t rely purely on memory) but still an excellent read.
Printed Legend from detractors (which also had the practical effect of shielding his own financial inheritance) and building a stunning Great Library as a way to turn his bibliophilia into something more (the title refers to 1,600 volumes that went down with the ship delivering them). This leads to a discussion of how in those pre-Dewey days you organize a library too big to remember the contents personally, Colon eventually going with listings by title, author and topic. I do think Wilson-Lee could have put that in the context of similar efforts (I know monastic libraries didn’t rely purely on monks’ memories) but still a fascinating read.
SYRIA’S SECRET LIBRARY: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege by Mike Thomson tells how the comfortable Syrian town of Daraya became the target for government forces during the ongoing (or is it? I’ve lost track) civil war and how rather than struggle just to survive, the townsfolk scavenged books to create their own underground library. While I like the hook, the library is only one element in a depressingly familiar story of death and survival; as that wasn’t what I wanted when I started this, I put it down unfinished.
THE LIBRARY OF THE UNWRITTEN: Hell’s Library #1 by AJ Hackwith starts in the netherworld book depository that holds the stories mortal authors never finished (plus wannabes who never started). Claire, the latest librarian, has the duty to keep the repressed imagination from manifesting physically; when a magical codex turns up capable of overturning the power balance in Hell, Claire’s forced to leave the library and hunt the book alongside her sidekick Muse, a damned spirit and a hero who escaped from one of the books. Of course, it turns out she has no idea what’s really going on … This was a fun fantasy, though I’d have been happy with it as a one-shot rather than a series opener.
Unsurprisingly DARK ARCHIVES: A Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom reveals that many of the stories of “anthropodermic bibliopegy” are myths. Most supposed anthropodermic books turn out to be bound in pig, calf or the like; there’s no evidence Nazis ever did it (though Rosenbloom admits she wouldn’t be surprised if one turns up someday); and the fifty or so books that do exist are typically obscure volumes of poetry or scholarship than an attempt to pen the Necronomicon.
Unfortunately the material on the books wasn’t apparently enough to build a book around so we get discourses on medical history, rare books and Rosenbloom’s own researches. Still there’s interesting accounts and some discussions about serious questions — if a man binds a book in woman’s skin should we automatically assume misogyny? Would it be more ethical to inter them like human remains? Disappointing overall, though.
#SFWApro. Photos top to bottom by Jorge Royan, Villy Fink Isaksen, and unknown, all public domain or Creative Commons licensing
