The Dark Library by Cyrille Martinez

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Dark Library
Author: Cyrille Martinez, Joseph Patrick Stancil (Translation)
Release Date: 10.20.20
Publisher: Coach House Books

Goodreads Summary:

In Cyrille Martinez's library, the books are alive: not just their ideas or their stories, but the books themselves. Meet the Angry Young Book, who has strong opinions about who reads what and why. He's tired of people reading bestsellers, so he places himself on the desks of those who might appreciate him. Meet the Old Historian who mysteriously vanished from the stacks. Meet the Blue Librarian, the Mauve Librarian, the Yellow Librarian, and spend a day with the Red Librarian trying to banish coffee cups and laptops.

Then one day there are no empty desks anywhere in the Great Library. A great horde of student workers has descended, and they will scan every single book in the library: the much-borrowed, the neglected, the popular, the obscure. What will happen to the library then? Will it still be necessary?

The Dark Library is a theoretical fiction, a meditation on what libraries mean in our digital world. Has the act of reading changed? What is a reader? A book? Martinez, a librarian himself, has written a love letter to the urban forest of the dark, wild library, where ideas and stories roam free.

My Review:

Libraries are constantly evolving to suit their patrons, communities, and the world at large. When I first experienced going to a library they were hallowed halls of silence and reading. No talking, no running, and absolutely no food or drink. Fast forward several decades and libraries are pretty noisy gathering spots where you can grab snacks at the vending machine and then proceed to crackle your chip bag for the next half hour disrupting people who who would actually like to read. Author Cyrille Martinez creates a mythical library where the books tell you what they think about the change in people's reading styles and provides a comical answer to never having access to a book you want to read. This short book (160 pages) was kooky fun and I would recommend it to librarians and book lovers.