Like many avid readers I know, I’m slightly compulsive in a library. From my first experiences in the Ellijay, GA public library, I can remember thinking that with the right approach, I’d have all the books read in a few short years. Actually, in that small town library (at that time, which would have been the late 70s and early 80s. I cannot speak for the quality of Ellijay’s library now), my goal would have been attainable had we not moved to Chapel Hill when I was 8. Somewhere between Ellijay and Chapel Hill, I discovered Encyclopedia Brown. Aside from the excitement of solving mysteries, I was always most fascinated with the fact that he started at one end of his town library and read each and every book until he read them all. This kid had obviously found the approach I’d sought.
Until college, each time I went to the public library, I checked out 10 books. I read the first chapter in each book, then the second, then the third, and so on, until one of the books sucked me in more strongly than the others. Now that I take Jake to the library regularly, he and I pick out ten books for his bedtime stories. I love the local branch of our library because it’s small enough that I can pick out my own book while still watching him in the children’s section.
Which brings me to the book review I sat down to write.
Last week I browsed through the new arrivals, looking for something unusual. I found The Floating Book: A Novel of Venice , by Michelle Lovric. This book first appealed to me because of Venice on the cover. Ike and I talk occasionally (as do my mom and I) about visiting Italy or even living in Italy. I’ve never been to the country and am a poor excuse for a speaker of the language (I think I can still remember the alphabet from the tapes we listened to on a road trip), but I’m fascinated with anything to do with the country. Much of the fascination comes from this book .
Back to the review. The Floating Book is Lovric’s first novel, though she has edited anthologies in the past. Lovric herself sounds like the kind of person I could develop a crush on; just listen to her bio on the jacket of the book. She’s a “student of European literature, and Venetian culture in particular…” and “divides her time between London and Venice, where she lives in a palazzo on the Grand Canal…” Nice.
It took me a few chapters to acclimate to Lovric’s style. I can’t say why, exactly, because by the time I finished the novel, I wanted to devour every word she’d ever written. The book is amazing in its historic detail and descriptions of Venice. The story’s focus is fifteenth century Venice, when the first printers move from Germany into the city. The uproar caused by the printed word (as opposed to the scribes) is fascinating. Lovric delves into the various classes and their responses to books. From church condemnation to elicit manuscripts. She writes of courtesans, nuns, witches (and a few characters who are more than one of those). There’s a beautiful love story thrown in as well. But the best thing about this book for me was the love affair with books. And paper. And printing. Wow.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the feel and smell of a book almost as much as they love the words inside. To anyone who goes into a used bookstore and immediately feels that they’re visiting close friends. And to anyone who can’t get out of a library without at least ten books…
Posted by Becky at July 3, 2004 12:03 AM