Thread Must-Read: ‘Parnassus on Wheels,’ ‘Ink and Bone’
This week, I celebrate books about books.
First, we hit the road with the stuffy, prim and unmarried Helen McGill as she makes an uncharacteristic decision to buy a bookshop on wheels - Parnassus, for which the book “Parnassus on Wheels” is named. She, along with Roger Mifflin — the man she bought the bookshop from — and his dog and horse travel around New England in an effort to share a love of literature with the unenlightened.
Here’s Helen’s charming first description in the book — written by Christopher Morley in 1917 — of the inside of this traveling bookshop:
“I must admit that Mr. Roger Mifflin had fixed up his van mighty comfortably inside. The body of the wagon was built out on each side over the wheels, which gave it an unwieldy appearance but made extra room for the bookshelves….On one side he had a little oil stove, a flap table and a cozy-looking bunk above which was built a kind of chest of drawers….on the other side more bookshelves, a small table and a little wicker easy chair.”
Makes you want to ditch it all, slip behind the wheel of an old Airstream and head out for parts unknown, doesn’t it?
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This next book poses a fascinating what-might-have-been: what if the Great Library of Alexandria hadn’t disappeared? What if, instead, it survived and became home to all of the works the world has seen since?
In “Ink and Bone,” the suspenseful young-adult novel by Rachel Caine, the Library is willing to share its knowledge, but it controls it. No one is allowed to own a book. Sounds like a rather dystopian future, doesn’t it?
This is where we meet the son of book smugglers, Jess Brightwell, and his quest to challenge the power held by the Library. Here’s a powerful lesson to keep in mind, from a scene with his father about what will happen if he’s caught hiding a book:
“Lose that book to the Garda and you’ll hang, if you’re lucky. If I don’t get you first. You know the route. Run it flat and fair and you’d best damn well die before you give it to anyone but the one that’s paid for it.”
Jess knows these aren’t idle words. His brother was caught and paid the price with his death.
The best part about “Ink and Bone”: if your young readers are captivated by it, there are four more books in the Great Library series!