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From: citrin@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Wayne Citrin)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Request for novels on bookshops and/or pipesmoking
Message-ID: <11249@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sun, 15-Dec-85 18:57:21 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.11249
Posted: Sun Dec 15 18:57:21 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Dec-85 04:04:38 EST
References: <4274@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: citrin@ucbvax.UUCP (Wayne Citrin)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 21

In article <4274@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> steiner@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Dave Steiner) writes:
>I'm looking for novels (mysteries and SF especially, but not
>exclusively) that are about books/bookshops in some way.  

First, I'd recommend "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by the late
Italo Calvino.  It's quite hard to describe, but it's quite ingenious.
Available in paperback at any good bookstore.

I would also recommend "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco.
It's a mystery that's also about books and libraries.  Also
available in paperback.  Both of the above books can be read at
any of a number of levels.

Finally, I would recommend a short piece by Jorge Luis Borges called
something like "The Library in Babylon" or "The Labyrinth in Babylon"
(the name escapes me) which can be found in a paperback collection
of Borges' works called "Labyrinths."  This piece was one of the
inspirations for Eco's book.

Wayne Citrin
(ucbvax!citrin)