Having spent two luscious days at the Tucson Festival of Books, followed by two evenings at my book clubs, I have been reveling in the company of the "bibliobibuli." Coined by H. L. Mencken in 1957, the word refers to people whose reading is constant and intoxicating. "I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion."
If the bibliobibuli inhibited a kingdom, its ruler could easily be Nancy Pearl. Nancy, who spent all day Saturdays at the Parkman Branch of the Detroit Public Library, grew up to be the librarian whose book recommendations have been aired on radio, collected in print and been on the tongues of readers everywhere. In 1991 she initiated the concept of the all-city book club when book lovers all over Seattle read and discussed the same book. Cities all over America, including Tucson, soon started and continue to host similar book discussions.
Nancy's latest, Book Lust To Go: recommended reading for travelers, vagabonds and dreamers will delight travelers, active or armchair, as Pearl includes reading suggestions for 120 destinations both real and imaginary. She recommends history, memoir, fiction, geography and poetry to get you into the mood for your journey or take along as literary travel companions, setting the scene or finding the heart and soul of your destination. Even the method of arriving-- by walking, by train, bicycle, by sea or air--come under the scope of Pearl's literary radar.
Be sure to check out her two preceding lust titles--Book Lust and More Book Lust.
Bon Voyage!
RR @ RR
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