Library & information services – The Bell Bookshop

The door-to-door bookstore

Emma — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘Such a heart-warming, wonderful little read that’ll appeal to anyone who understands what it means to fall in love with stories’ – 5***** Reader ReviewThere’s a book written for every one of us… Carl may be 72 years old, but he’s young at heart. Every night he goes door-to-door delivering books by hand to his loyal customers. He knows their every desire and preference, carefully selecting the perfect story for each person.One evening as he makes his rounds, nine-year-old Schascha appears. Loud and precocious, she insists on accompanying him – and even tries to teach him a thing or two about books.When Carl’s job at the bookstore is threatened, will the old man and the girl in the yellow raincoat be able to restore Carl’s way of life, and return the joy of reading to his little European town? THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOKSTORE is a heart-warming tale of the value of friendship, the magic of reading, and the power of books to unite us all.Translated by Melody Shaw’Moving, poignant and life affirming’ – 5***** Reader Review’Poignant and uplifting, it’s truly a book for book lovers everywhere’ – 5***** Reader Review’A balm for the soul’ – 5***** Reader Review

Stories of books and libraries

Emma — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Here are libraries modest, mobile, mystical (Borges of course) and magical (Helen Oyeyemi’s enchanting ‘Books and Roses’); public and private, provincial and prestigious. Little that happen in Elizabeth McCracken’s eccentric library did not happen in real life – even down to the murder; and it is rumoured that on 3 June 1997 the British Museum Reading Room really was visited by the ghost of Max Beerbohm’s obscurest of poets, Enoch Soames…
Fiction and reality merge in Cortazar’s ‘A Continuity of Parks’. Characters step out of their books in Fay Weldon’s ‘Lily Bart’s Hat Shop’, while Jasper Fforde’s Jurisfiction operatives enter Wuthering Heights to deliver a Rage-Counselling session. Charles Lamb muses on the annoying book-borrowing habits of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the teenage Teffi is overawed by Tolstoy; Helene Hanff in Manhattan launches her famous correspondence with a London antiquarian bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road.
Reading, as the Queen informs an appalled private secretary, is ‘untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting’. And also, of course, a lot of fun. Sit comfortably, then, and begin.

The Library

Emma — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWNA SUNDAY TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR’Timely … a long and engrossing survey of the library’ FT’A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched’ Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the BooksFamed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings – the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident.In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.

Temples of Books

Emma — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In 2016, the world’s oldest existing library reopened in Fes, Morocco. It opened for the first time in the 9th Century. These shrines to the written word date back even further, and continue to be built today. They’re a place where some of the oldest written texts are preserved and some of the newest technology connects visitors with vast amounts of knowledge. Libraries are changing, but, as places that are fundamentally free and open to all, they’re also staying the same.Temples of Books explores the most stunning examples, but it also explores how varied the idea of a library can be. It can be a grand Baroque hall with leather-bound tomes or a mid-century masterpiece, but it can just as easily be a few shelves in a repurposed phone booth.

The Library

Emma — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR’A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched, of that extraordinary and enduring phenomenon: the library’ Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under AttackFamed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings – the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident.In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.