Sunday, March 22, 2020

Bindings

Anthony Lane, "Bindings; 'The Truth' and 'The Booksellers'", New Yorker, March 23, 2020, p. 68-69.

     The dealers' mission, one declares, is to "inculcate neophytes into the wonder of the object of the book." (Translation; get the suckers hooked.) We glimpse one volume containing mammoth hair; another covered inhuman skin, with teeth embedded in the cover; and a librarian doll, "with Amazing push-button Shushing Action!"

COMMENT

   A review of the documentary  "The Booksellers" is about people who are obsessed with print books.  I happen to own the librarian doll mentioned, a toy that was all the rage with librarians back in 2003.  She was modeled on librarian Nancy Pearl who wrote "Book Lust." Here's a history of the famous librarian action figure: https://mcphee.com/pages/history-of-the-librarian-action-figure

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