The Night Bookmobile
The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Graphic Short Story
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts, September 2010
Format: Hardback | 40 pages
When this book was published last year I put it on my to read list. A Chicago author writing/illustrating a story about a bookmobile that mysteriously appeared on the streets of Chicago appealed to me. I don’t know if bookmobiles are still driving around but when I was a child there was one that came to my grade school every third Thursday. I couldn’t wait for that day because it meant that I was getting new books to read.
Recently I saw The Night Bookmobile at my public library; I checked it out and was surprised to find that it was only 40 pages long. It took me about 10 minutes to read it while I was eating my lunch. I liked it a lot. It had a surreal, fairy tale quality to it and was obviously a dream: While out walking one night a young woman encounters a bookmobile which contains a library of everything she has ever read, and then it disappears. She becomes obsessed with finding it again.
I wasn’t going to review or write about this book on the blog, but when I went to log a few impressions on my goodreads page I noticed that there were people that absolutely hated the book. Why, I wondered? Well, not everyone interpreted the story the same way. Some saw it as a slam against reading and that if you read too much you are wasting your life. I saw it more as a cautionary tale to the love of reading.
In the After Words the author herself asks:
“What would you sacrifice to sit in that comfy chair with perfect light for an afternoon in eternity, reading the perfect book, forever?”
When I finished the story my first thought was, “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it, but not in the way you expect”. Like the Greek Myth where Eos asked Zeus to make Tithonus immortal but forgetting to ask for eternal youth.
Anyone else read this this? Your impressions? Love it or hate it? I’m curious.
Under My Apple Tree 
I haven’t read it, but I’d like to. I’m especially curious since it seems to provoke such strong reactions.
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I remember book mobiles, or books on wheels!
Leslie, I haven’t read this book–yet. It sounds fabulous to me, and I wonder now about the message or messages of the book. I may need to “check this out”.
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I do need to read this one, sooner rather than later. It does seem to strike a reader one way or the other, but never in-between.
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I posted this on Facebook, but as you don’t have too many comments here, here it is again:
I loved it, surprising story, great illustrations, though I was kind of shocked by the end. here is my review: http://wordsandpeace.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-night-bookmobile/. By the way, the view I express of graphic novels has much changed since then!
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I’ve also read some reviews with strong opinions on this one! I couldn’t quite decide what to think of it myself. I found the concept of the Bookmobile fascinating, but I don’t know how to feel about the ending. It felt to me like the character devoted herself to reading to a very unhealthy degree…but then that sort of worked out for her? I mean, she did get what she wanted and seemed happy, but what a way to get it! This is the second time I’ve liked the first half of a Niffenegger book (same experience with The Time-Traveler’s Wife) and then had trouble with the rest.
But the CONCEPT…I want to find a Bookmobile with everything I’ve ever read in it!
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I agree. I was happily reading along enjoying the concept and then got smacked by the ending. It was unexpected but in a way that’s what makes it a good book.
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I thought this was an interesting way to present a story though I rather prefer to read a full novel. & it’s only because I don’t read graphic books.
I guess I was sort of guessed the ending. I mean, there seems to be a fantasy element there and I thought it unlikely that the main character would remain satisfied just browsing her own library. there is a desire there for change, at least that was I thought.
but wouldn’t it be great to go to a mobile library and find all the books might want to read instead of the books you’ve read? I suppose it does exist in the form of an actual brick and mortor library but those just seems to be disappearing.
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