I’ve been reading books with a theme, once again. For the last several months I devoured any books I could get my hands on about libraries or bookshops. Then I discovered a sub-genre, if you will, among these. I was drawn to books that explored the idea of “the gift of reading.” I found this in both fiction and non-fiction titles.
“In the novel The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander, a young librarian loses her job and her only relative— her grandmother—at about the same time. She packs up her life and moves to a cottage in another part of England. The cottage comes with an empty red phone box, that sits right out front. The villagers tell her the phone box is her responsibility. Our heroine Jess fills the empty phone box with books from ten beloved boxes she inherited from her grandmother and creates a small lending library. Through this “little library” she becomes closer to her new neighbors, at the same time gifting upon them a small library that was greatly lacking in their village.
In the book The Gifts of Reading: Essays on the Joys of Reading, Giving, and Receiving Books, there are contributions by many wellknown writers with their takes on the gift of reading. My favorite quote is within the contribution by Max Porter. “I believe in the gift economy, especially if what you are giving is words and images, ideas and stories. Let us give and give and give.” In the back of this book there is the bonus of a list of five favorite books by each of the contributing writers.
Author Cathy Rentzenbrink authored the non-fiction work Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Reading Books. Within its pages, the author provides herself the gift of reading by reacquainting herself with some of her favorite books through childhood and beyond. Readers of this title discover the love of books through another’s lens.
Emma Young is an Australian author who wrote the novel The Last Bookshop, set in a small-ish Australian town. The heroine Cait runs a small independent bookshop and struggles to find ways to keep her shop open. One idea she comes up with is traveling around to the more vulnerable among the population and essentially taking a pop-up bookshop to them.
I could go on with more titles, but I don’t want to abuse the generosity of our newspaper editors. Have you read any books with “the gift of reading” theme? If so, please send the titles to me at the library, and I’ll include them in the December column. You can reach me at 830-249-3053, or [email protected]. The above titles are in print, and available to check out from the library.
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