For Breda

I buy a lot of books. I far prefer to own them, rather than borrow them. But books tend to be expensive, so I buy used a lot. Plus, some of the stuff I buy is out of print, so I have no other option. Because of this, I use ABEBooks.com, an online resource to used book stores all over the world. They, of course, send me emails from time to time. Today’s was quite interesting, or would be if I were a librarian:

Librarian Literature: Top 10 Books Written by Librarians

AbeBooks loves librarians. Librarians love AbeBooks. (And we think everyone else loves librarians too aside from the bean-counters who keep cutting their budgets.) This email salutes those great lovers of books, literacy and reading – the world’s librarian community – and we’re highlighting some wonderful books written by librarians themselves.

Who but a person surrounded by books could be better qualified to write? Many an author has been born and developed in the stacks. The list does not feature the following librarian/writers – John Braine, Lewis Carroll, Archibald MacLeish, Nancy Pearl, Kit Pearson, Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Okigbo, Marcel Proust, and Ina Coolbrith – but we could easily have included their books.

	The Less Deceived Philip Larkin The 1955 poetry collection that made his name – Larkin was a librarian at the University of Hull.			A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle Her 1962 sci-fi/fantasy classic (rejected by many publishers) – L’Engle worked as a librarian in New York.
	The Aleph and Other Stories Jorge Luis Borges The Nobel Prize winner was a municipal librarian in Argentina – this 1949 collection is one of his best.			Little Big Man Thomas Berger This 1964 novel became a movie in 1970. Berger worked as a librarian and journalist.
	Star Man’s Son Alice Mary Norton A post-apocalyptic tale from 1952 – Norton was a librarian in Cleveland and the Library of Congress.			Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson An ex-librarian AND bookseller, Petterson’s novel was one of the NY Times’ books of the year in 2007.
	The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler This former librarian won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1985 with this novel.			The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot Angus Wilson A librarian in the British Museum, Wilson’s 1958 novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
	At Mrs Lippincote’s Elizabeth Taylor Taylor was a governess, teacher and librarian – At Mrs Lippincotes was her debut novel in 1945.			Eagle in the Snow Wallace Breem Breem was a legal manuscripts librarian in London – a Roman General is the hero of this historical novel.

(PS – if you work as a librarian, please email your recommendation for the best book written by a fellow librarian to [email protected])

This one’s for you, Breda.