100 Must-Read Books about Libraries Bookstores

100 Must-Read Books about Libraries Bookstores This post is sponsored by  The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction… Irene is an undercover Librarianâ€"a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: retrieve a particularly dangerous book. But by the time they arrive, its already been stolen. Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. Im not even sure why Im writing an introduction to this list. Its a hundred books about libraries and bookstores! That should  sell itself. But sure. Fine. Ill make the pitch. Books are a crucial part of our lives (especially yours, since here you are being a great big nerd on Book Riot), but I think we dont always pay enough attention to the institutions that get those books into our grubby, greedy little hands. Sure, well bicker about Amazon sometimes or squee over a bookmobile, but how much time do we take to really explore and think about what libraries and bookstores really mean? Not enough! So heres a not-in-any-particular-order, not-at-all-comprehensive list of books about libraries and bookstoresfiction and non, graphic and all text, old and newthat will give you a chance to do just that while having a damn great time. (And youll get some extra-meta cred when you acquire them via library or bookstore. Score!) Stay tuned for library cats, bookmobile romance novels, feminist bookstores, and more: Books About Libraries The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the Worlds Most Unusual Libraries by Alex Johnson Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow by Cheryl Knott The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer Rons Big Mission by Rose Blue Corinne J. Naden The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 by Richard Brautigan Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde Nancy Runs the Bookmobile by Enid Johnson With a High Heart by Adele de Leeuw Books and Beaux by Rosemae Wells Campbell The Girl on the Bookmobiles by Natalie King Here Comes the Bookmobile by Dirk Gringhuis Curious Missie by Virginia Sorensen The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google by John Palfrey The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton The Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman Reading Places: Literacy, Democracy, and the Public Library in Cold War America by Christine Pawley The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History by Alice Crawford Patience and Fortitude: Power, Real Estate, and the Fight to Save a Public Library by Scott Sherman This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson African American Librarians in the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers by Binnie Tate Wilkin Where Are All the Librarians of Color? by Rebecca Hawkins and Miguel Juarez Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library  by Wayne Wiegand Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai Bookshelf by Lydia Pyne The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel The Library at Babel by Jorge Luis Borges I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks by Gina Sheridan Institutions of Reading: The Social Life of Libraries in the United States by Thomas Augst and Kenneth Carpenter The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries Black Librarianship by John Mark Tucker The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown and John Parra Murder in the Museum by John Rowland The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom The Bad Book Affair by Ian Sansom Americus by MK Reed You Could Look It Up: The Reference Shelf From Ancient Babylon to Wikipedia by Jack Lynch The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger The Worlds Strongest Librarian: A Book Lovers Adventures by Josh Hanagarne The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie Murder at the 42nd Street Library by Con Lehane By Book or By Crook: A Lighthouse Library Mystery by Eva Gates The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudson Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The Archivist by Martha Cooley Quiet, Please: Dispatches From a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas Unshelved by Bill Barnes Gene Ambaum In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians by Michael Cart The Library Book The Librarian by Larry Beinhart Escape from Mr. Lemoncellos Library by Chris Grabenstein Library Wars: Love War, Vol. 1 by Kiiro Yumi Hiro Arikawa The Library by Zoran Živkovic Tomás and the Library Lady by Pat Mora The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956 by Wayne Wiegand Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian by Alison Lewis So You Want to Be a Librarian  by Lauren Pressley Books About Bookstores Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption by Laura J. Miller The Cracked Spine: A Scottish Bookshop Mystery Hardcover â€" March 29, 2016 by Paige Shelton The Feminist Bookstore Moment: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability by Kristen Hogan Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism  by Anne Enke The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control by Ted Striphas No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley Mr. Penumbras 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin The Bookmans Tale by Charlie Lovett The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler Severina by Rodrigo Rey Rosa The Bookseller of Kabul by Ã…sne Seierstad Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama. and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore by Suzanne Stempek Shea The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, and Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Mary Anne and the Haunted Bookstore (The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #34) by Ann M. Martin Bookstore Cat by Cindy Wheeler The Bookstore Mouse by Peggy Christian A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé On the Books: A Graphic Tale of Working Woes at NYC’s Strand Bookstore by Greg Farrell Fug You : An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side by Ed Sanders Feminist Revolution in Literacy: Women’s Bookstores in the United States by Junko Onasaka The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare Co. by Jeremy Mercer A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire by Janice Radway