The Night Bookmobile [Hardcover]

Normally I don't include the blurb of a book, however Neil Gaiman has written this one so without further ado here is his: "The Night Bookmobile is a love letter, both elegiac and heartbreaking, to the things we have read, and to the readers that we are. It says that what we read makes us who we are. It's a graphic short story, beautifully drawn and perfectly told, a cautionary fantasia for anyone who has ever loved books, and I hope the story of the library, of Alexandra, finds its place on the night bookmobiles of all of who'd care. It's a treasure." Now doesn't that just sound the perfect book for any book lover?

`The Night Bookmobile', which started life as an illustrated column in The Guardian, is in many ways a complete celebration of the books we have loved and remembers, not finished but meant to and those we read and forgot about. One night after a row with her boyfriend Alexandra is walking the streets of her neighbourhood when she comes across the Night Bookmobile and is drawn inside. Here she discovers a Tardis-like space of shelves with endless books, as she browses she soon realises that this is her very own library with all the books she has read, or started and left unfinished, throughout her lifetime. This reawakens her love of reading and soon sees her changing her life with a much more bookish bent. I simply loved this premise and it started making me think about all the books and authors I have loved the most, onces who I have said I would keep on reading and haven't, etc, etc. I soon had a list of lots of reading I was desperate to turn to again.

I do however have a few little qualms about `The Night Bookmobile'. The first would have to be its length as it is just 64 pages long, which is fine bevause it is a stuningly beautiful read yet means there is a slight lack of depth. We never quite know what is going on with Alexandra when she remeets the Night Bookmobile at random points in her life and I would have liked to know more. I do also think on a slight tangent but still based on its length -and this is nothing to do with the author - that maybe the price should reflect its length too, though I picked mine up at the library I think it is worth a mention.

The second one is difficult to discuss without spoilers, but I will try, and that is the ending. It is rather tragic, seems to come from nowhere and rather disturbed me with the message it was passing on. I wondered if I had missed something somewhere, so happily read the book again, and I hadn't. This ending came out of nowhere, didn't really make sense and left me feeling uneasy and wishing the last few pages hadn't been included, it was up until then almost perfect.

That said for its celebration of books, and I loved the fact its designed like a child's picture book too, I did really like this book for the passion about books it has behind it. It is the sort of book that makes you think `this author knows why I read' and I was thrilled to learn that this is in fact part of something called `The Library' which Niffenegger is working on and off all the time. Could she hurry up please and a longer more in depth book by her about loving books would simply be perfect.

This is a beautiful graphic novel about Alexandra, a girl who loves books and after a chance encounter with the Night Bookmobile, decides to become a librarian.

The illustrations and wonderfully quirky and the simple story is moving and has a familiar feel for people who love reading. The book celebrates reading and libraries and a love of books.

Whilst very different to The Time Travelers Wife, the feel of the story and the book is familiar. Book lovers and librarians will not be disappointed.

The first time I spotted that comic book, I didn't believe it at first that somebody ever wrote about bookmobiles in such a pleasant and mysterious way. Indeed, this story, which is the first part of a big project called The Library, shows a woman that rediscovers everything that she ever read and made her what she is in a bookmobile. From that moment, this single encounter changes the course of her life, for better and for worse.

Now this comic book's origin comes from a novella the author published in Zoetrope All Story, so you will find that the story mixes both the original text and the author's paintings. Sometimes it works well, but at other times, I felt that some of the text could have been removed or trimmed, so to let the images and panels speak for themselves. As for the paintings themselves, they have a very modern touch that works well with the story and adds a great atmosphere. As such, I think the author could have better balanced her text and her images.

Apart from that, I still felt that certain characters could have been better developed like the main character's boyfriend, whose last actions could have been shown to us instead of being told through the text. As such, I felt that this comic book could have been the occasion for the author to enrich her story with more details and situations than in her original novella.

Nevertheless, I think that this book was a pleasure to read and I recommend it to anybody who knows a librarian who works in a library or in a bookmobile.