Book of the Week: The Night Bookmobile

"Have you ever found your heart's desire and lost it?”

Alexandra first encounters the Night Bookmobile after an argument with her boyfriend. Roaming the streets of Chicago to clear her head, she comes across a beat up Winnebago at a familiar intersection in her town. Invited in by a friendly old man, she enters the Bookmobile and is met with a grand collection of familiar books. The mobile library's collection is made up of every book, note, even every cereal box, that Alexandra has ever read. At dawn, baffled and excited, Alexandra leaves the Bookmobile with hopes of returning again. So begins a lifelong affair with the Night Bookmobile.

Over the next few years, we watch as Alexandra devotes her life to reading for the Bookmobile and building its collection. Even though it only re-appears twice more in her life – both times nearly a decade apart - she becomes a woman obsessed. She dreams of joining Mr. Openshaw as a librarian for the The Library, despite him advising strongly against it.

In the end, this novel delivers a surprising, though perhaps abrupt, plot twist. Like other works of Niffenegger's, great sacrifices must be made in the name of love and, like her other characters, Alexandra is more than willing to pay the price.

Though some may find themselves unsatisfied by the story's stilted plot and narration, bibliophiles will love the idea behind The Night Bookmobile. The Bookmobile, the Library, and the Librarians who keep it all working belong to a wondrously eerie and magical world that begs to be further explored.

A mobile library, a secret world, a supernatural collection and an eternity surrounded by every book imaginable would be near impossible to resist.

Thanks to Fandango and everybody dies; for editing.

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