I Murdered My Library

Despite that dramatic title, and the cover modelled on the green-jacketed vintage Penguin Crime series, this is not a murder story. It is, instead, a delightful mix of memoir, essay and, above all, a paean to books - owning them, reading them and even writing them.

I found it especially entertaining as it gradually became clear that Ms Grant lives, or at least formerly lived, near me. She lovingly describes the now defunct Prospero's Books shop down in Crouch End (-though she never names the locality, Prospero's was a well known landmark in North London), and she even makes an oblique reference to the marvellous Muswell Hill Bookshop which is, literally, just around the corner from where I live.

The book is loosely draped around an show more account of the quandary she found herself in when she had to move to a smaller apartment and finally admitted to herself that she simply had too many books. Now why does that sound familiar? She recounts the painful experience of deciding what books she can dispense with and which she simply has to keep.

Meanwhile she also describes her growing affection for her Kindle which, in addition to saving valuable shelf space, also allows her to enlarge the font to a manageable size. I certainly sympathised with, and recognised, her struggles to cope with seemingly ever-smaller print.

I haven't read any f her previous books but will certainly now be looking out for them. Her prose shows easy style and is readily accessible, and she writes with an engaging tone.

This was a chance buy, but one I was very satisfied with. show less

This will resonate with anyone who shares Grant’s – and my – problem. When you’re an enthusiastic reader, you will, sooner or late, come to this point: ‘The books in alphabetical rows were overgrown by piles of new books, doubled in front. Books multiplied, books swarmed, books, I sometimes dreamt, seemed to reproduce themselves – they were a papery population explosion‘. When she downsizes to a smaller flat in London, Grant faces the physically painful task of decimating her library. Confronted with this literary mirror of her past, she remembers how she has engaged with books throughout her life and what having a library means to her. Funnily enough (or not, if you’re in the same boat) it transpires that a show more ‘library’ isn’t really that much about the contents of the books. It’s a time capsule, a record of memories, friends and events otherwise forgotten, an assertion of personality, (perhaps, shamefully) a display of one’s intellect (“I bloody well will read Herodotus / Proust / Camus one day”), a way to impress boyfriends or colleagues.

Grant has been a book fetishist (‘junkie‘) for much of her life. Those broken-backed spines and scruffy pages have been beloved objects. But now, as she gets older, she finds that the tiny print of her 1960s paperbacks is proving too much of a challenge. She finds herself increasingly seduced by the Kindle, with its resizeable text, its clarity and, joy of joys, its capacity. A library can now be in a pocket (assuming, that is, you can get the books you want on Kindle and, as Grant laments, that isn’t always the case). Far from shunning modern technology, Grant embraces it and she makes an interesting point. As an author, she knows all too well what it’s like to write a book and she makes a point that books are now written on screens. Authors bring their books to life in Microsoft Word, in a white, blank space. Reading the book on a Kindle screen is, perhaps, much closer to the author’s experience of writing it than reading it in a cherished hard copy. It’s a good point. A love story about books, yet also about the need to let them go, it’s a short piece that will strike a chord with anyone who’s come back from Oxfam with yet another pile of books, thinking, “Oh bugger. No more shelf space…”

For this review and other reviews of bite-sized books, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/04/28/bite-sized-books/ show less

This essay struck such a chord with me - we're moving soon and there won't be as much space for books. Which do I get rid of, and which do I keep? Linda Grant takes a long hard look at her own collection, books that have very much defined who she is, and culls those she feels she can let go. (I have taken on board the lesson she learnt so painfully ... she finds in the end that she has let go of far too many.) Along the way she examines her (read - any booklover's) relationship with both physical books and ebooks.

Any bookaholic will find this a worthwhile read and cautionary tale.

This essay rings true for every book lover, such as myself, who has hundreds or thousands of books, read and unread, taking up precious room in their home. Linda Grant had to get rid of (or murder) many books when she moved house and this is her account of that, along with ruminations about books.

It's a lovely little read and filled in a gap between two full length books perfectly. I liked reading her thoughts about paper books and ebooks, technology and the way that culling her library made her feel.

This is a long essay about "weeding the collection" and about what books mean in the live of those who love them. I totally understood the feelings of the author as she ruthlessly discarded books in preparation for a move--I have done that. I ended up buying them back later. I like my Kindle, as she said, but I still like my paper books too.

Interesting Essay on Books vs. Kindle and contemplating one's mortality

I am currently culling my own physical library so this little book speaks to my current situation. Any avid reader can relate to this, being overrun by books and yet feeling heretical when it comes time to get rid of some.

(Nonfiction, Bibliophilic, Kindle Single)

When Grant downsized her living space in 2013, she had to purge thousands of her books from her personal library, started when she was a child.

Amazon says: ”Both a memoir of a lifetime of reading and an insight into how interior décor has banished the bookcase, her account of the emotional struggle of her relationship with books asks questions about the way we live today.“

The author is an award winning novelist and nonfiction writer, so this is a well-written and fascinating treatise.

4 stars