The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger
Hardback 40 pages
published by Abrams, Harry N., Inc. in September 2010
ISBN-13: 9780810996175

Type: {Commuter Read: format lends easily to starting/ stopping.}
Rating: {I’m Lovin’ It: Very entertaining!}

Why You’re Reading It:

• You like graphic novels
• You are a lover of books
• You love the library and/or a librarian
• Macabre endings don’t ruffle your feathers in the slightest

What I Thought:

The Night Bookmobile was almost the perfect book. A short, graphic novel by the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry that captured a love for reading in a beautiful, original way. The Night Bookmobile is about Alexandra, a woman who first discovers her night bookmobile in the middle of the night, while on a walk after a fight with her boyfriend. She enters the bookmobile being greeted by the friendly librarian and discovers that this library is incredibly unique. It contains all the items that she has ever read, including books, phone books, diaries, and letters. Throughout the years she searches for the book mobile again and again but only finds it at the times in which she is not looking. Each time, the library contains more rows of books as it grows with each title Alexandra reads in her daily life.

We can guess the end while reading, but we will don’t know exactly how it will come about (that may sound cryptic, but you’ll understand once you read it, I don’t want to give anything away). When I came to the climax of this book, Niffenegger lost me. Not only did it not seem to fit the character of Alexandra at all, it was an abrupt and very unpleasant situation. Turning it from a book that you could actually share with children of all ages to a strictly adult book that, frankly, kind of disappoints. I should have not been so surprised to get this from an author who writes beautiful stories but can’t ever seem to steer away from ending them in the most painful, far-fetched ways.

I do, however, recommend you read it if you are a book lover. The idea of it is so wonderful and motivating to read, read, read all of those fantastic books that are piled up on your shelves.