My rating:

add to my books

Travels in the Scriptorium

by Paul Auster

3.10 · rating details · 2,578 ratings · 370 reviews

A man pieces together clues to his past--and the identity of his captors--in this fantastic, labyrinthine novel
An old man awakens, disoriented, in an unfamiliar chamber. With no memory of who he is or how he has arrived there, he pores over the relics on the desk, examining the circumstances of his confinement and searching his own hazy mind for clues.
Determining that...more

Hardcover, 160 pages

Published January 23rd 2007 by Henry Holt and Co. (first published January 1st 2006)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster

Best Paul Auster Books

14th out of 16 books — 6 voters

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities by Ann VanderMeer

40 for 2012

22nd out of 40 books — 1 voter

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,674)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 22, 2007

Katie rated it

Recommends it for: People who have read and enjoyed other Auster books

First things first: I am an Auster fan. I’m not sure I’d have been able to enjoy this book were I unfamiliar with his work. Yes, its gotten mixed reviews. Yes, it is self-referential. (Honestly, is this a surprise to anyone? Get over it.) Worth reading for Auster-philes? Without a doubt.

The issues Auster takes on in this novella (really, it’s only about 150 pages) are familiar to his readers: questions of identity, memory, the nature of narrative, among others. The writing ...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Feb 26, 2009

Jason Weeks rated it

Recommends it for: Readers who enjoy Borges, Eco, and Calvino

Shelves: reviewed

Before Travels in the Scriptorium, I’d never read Paul Auster. Now I have to read everything he’s written.

Travels in the Scriptorium was an impulse buy based on the cover. I found an advanced readers copy at work. It was that simple. The book turned out to be anything but.

An elderly man wakes up in a simple room. He is being monitored. He’s essentially locked in. He can’t remember his past. He doesn’t know where he is. Over the course of one day, nurses and mysterious vi...moreBefore Travels in the Scriptorium, I’d never read Paul Auster. Now I have to read everything he’s written.

Travels in the Scriptorium was an impulse buy based on the cover. I found an advanced readers copy at work. It was that simple. The book turned out to be anything but.

An elderly man wakes up in a simple room. He is being monitored. He’s essentially locked in. He can’t remember his past. He doesn’t know where he is. Over the course of one day, nurses and mysterious visitors reveal hints, but no solid details, of his previous life. There is a desk with a stack of photographs and a manuscript of a novel or memoir, half western, half post-colonial. The story, if you can call it that, consists of the man reading and trying to figure out what’s happening to him. It’s an extended Borgesian story within a story, and when it concludes, you’re left groping with questions and an eagerness to turn back to page one, to begin again with more attention, more questions.

Is Auster describing what it is like to grow old? Or is he making a statement on how lonely our interior lives really are? Perhaps he’s describing the creative process, with an emphasis on writer’s block. Whatever the case, like Borges, the truth is never revealed and we’re left with more questions than we started with.

A few months after I read the book, I read a review. This can be dangerous to do, and it was in this case. In fact, it was more than dangerous. It was extraordinary.

According to the review (NYT or New Yorker, I believe), many of the details in Travels in the Scriptorium, such as minor character names, are taken directly from Auster’s other work. Is this some sort of Paul Auster meta-narrative? An elaborate trick? A personal statement about the world Auster inhabits alongside the “real” world he and his readers share? Whatever the case, whatever the reason, Auster’s entire oeuvre is now on my reading list. This book was, is, a stand-alone gem, and I want more.

Read my other reviews at: http://www.borrowedtimes.blogspot.com/
(less)

like 3 likes

· see review

Jul 18, 2009

Gertrude & Victoria rated it

Shelves: anglo-american-library

I have to say this was the worst Paul Auster book I've read, and I've read most of his works. If you must read Travels in the Scriptorium, it is best that you keep your expectations in check. That way you won't be bitterly disappointed. From the very first words I thought this story was going nowhere. I was correct. When I had finished it it had gone nowhere. It was a tedious read. And a bore. At least though, the second half was a little better than the first, but overall I thought it w...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Aug 16, 2011

Blair rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, read-on-kindle

Travels in the Scriptorium opens like this: a man, known only as Mr. Blank, is apparently imprisoned within a room. He remembers snippets of his childhood, but nothing of how he came to be in the room, and has little to no recollection of his adult life. During the course of the story, he is visited by a number of people - two women who take on nurse/carer roles, an ex-policeman, a lawyer and so on - and recognises them only vaguely, if at all. He contemplates escaping from the room, but seems i...moreTravels in the Scriptorium opens like this: a man, known only as Mr. Blank, is apparently imprisoned within a room. He remembers snippets of his childhood, but nothing of how he came to be in the room, and has little to no recollection of his adult life. During the course of the story, he is visited by a number of people - two women who take on nurse/carer roles, an ex-policeman, a lawyer and so on - and recognises them only vaguely, if at all. He contemplates escaping from the room, but seems incapable of attempting to discover whether the door is locked from the outside, despite the fact that he is able to move around and the room is small. To pass the time, he begins to read a manuscript on his desk, which turns out to be an account of a man's adventures and imprisonment in 'the Confederation', a vaguely sci-fi fictionalised version of America.

This book is really an extended short story, with a strong surreal flavour. It becomes obvious quite quickly that the character of Mr. Blank is supposed to represent the author - if not Auster himself, then something of the writer's spirit, perhaps the part of him that makes him an author. Blank's visitors frequently refer to themselves as 'operatives' who he has sent on 'missions', often with seriously detrimental effects on their lives. Whether the visitors are benign, or seeking revenge, is unclear, but it does seem to be the case that by the conclusion, they have 'won'. Apparently, this story contains references to every one of Auster's other novels; I can't account for all of them, as I've only read three so far. But I did recognise the title (also the name of one of the unseen Hector Mann films in The Book of Illusions) and a number of character names, particularly those from The New York Trilogy. The story itself is very reminiscent of the tales in The New York Trilogy, with heavy use of symbolism and motifs. Altogether, it's extremely, and obviously deliberately, self-referential.

I was a little disappointed in this, compared to the other Auster books I've read in the past month. I wasn't sure what the minutiae of Mr. Blank's activities (and by 'activities' I mean things like going to the toilet or getting an erection) added to the story, which was already scant enough. The story contained within the manuscript, ostensibly penned by John Trause of Oracle Night, was interesting, but didn't end up going anywhere - though of course that's kind of the point of it (the story 'ends' halfway through, and Mr. Blank invents a range of possible endings which rather spoil the illusion). After how much I've enjoyed Auster's novels, this left me feeling a bit short-changed, and while his talent was still evident in the prose style, it definitely wasn't a favourite.(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Feb 12, 2009

Xysea rated it

Recommends it for: Paul Auster fans, people who like quick reads

Shelves: fiction, book-on-home-shelf

Okay, well I read this entire book (90 pages) within a few hours in the Barnes & Nobles. Truth be told, I read it there for two reasons: (a) I have been told to read something by Paul Auster by a few people and (b) I didn't want to pay $16.00 for it.

(My daughter read the Guiness Book of World Records for Kids, lol)

It's an interesting story within a story. The writing, initially, is pretty solid, pretty tight. But the story is hard to keep interested in. A lot of the ...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jul 18, 2009

Simon Cleveland rated it

Shelves: contemporary-literature

Auster always surprises me with his stories. In Timbuktu I met a dog and saw the whole story through the animal’s point of view. In Travels In The Scriptorium I meet an old man with suffering from amnesia, but portrayed in a sense that embodies us, the readers. Mr. Blank (strange name for a character), wakes up one morning in a room of what appears to be some sort of sanatorium. Except Mr. Blank feels strangely like a prisoner in this place. The windows are bolted; the room is completely bare, y...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jun 02, 2008

Joshua rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: quote-literature-unquote

I'm not the biggest Paul Auster fan. In fact, I've never really read any of his other books. I got attracted to this book because of its odd cover and a recommendation from another person new to Auster's worlds and he loved it.

This is a terrible place to start for any Auster virgin because from what I can gather, its a bunch of in-jokes from characters that were in his previous novels. Like all meta-fiction, things take a turn for the absurd and questions of truth, art and honesty r...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Feb 16, 2008

Tory rated it

Recommends it for: absolutely no one.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. As down with Auster as I am, this little novella, best described as a steaming lump of self-referential fourth-wall crap, just completely failed me. To sum it up, it's all these characters from Auster's other books seeking revenge on this person who sent them on their "missions"--Auster himself, I suppose. It's his characters putting him through one of his stories, locking him in a mysterious room and taking away his memories so he's in one of his own puzzles. How droll! If you hav...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Jan 16, 2012

manyhighways rated it

"Travels in the Scriptorium" is a strange book. Everything takes places in a sparsely furnished room and revolves around a man who the narrator refers to as Mr. Blank. Blank has no idea why he is in this room and he has no memory of who he is. The book reads like a report of Mr. Blank's activities for the day. He gets up, walks to the desk and sees a pile of photos and a stack of type written pages which he is told to read. Mr. Blank ends up spending most of his day in this room t...more

· see review

Dec 05, 2011

Caitlin rated it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Here’s something I wish I’d known before reading this book: Travels in the Scriptorium should not be the first Paul Auster you read. (Why didn’t I read a review?!) If I’d done my research rather than impulsively grabbing this off a table because of its quirky cover (a horse! in a room!) I would have known that this is Auster’s thirteenth novel and his most navel-gazing, almost a note to longtime fans. As a newcomer, I didn’t realize that all of the secondary characters were drawn from his previo...more

· see review

Sep 08, 2011

Alex rated it

If I am to be honest, the most powerful part of this slim volume is its cover art, a spectral, haunting tableau which, along with long hearing good things about the author, was admittedly instrumental in my picking the book up. I don't regret being suckered in by that hook. I simply wish the story itself had been stronger.

To be sure, the scenario set up in the story is fascinating... the old man, trapped in a room, with no memory of how he got there or where he is. Outside characters a...moreIf I am to be honest, the most powerful part of this slim volume is its cover art, a spectral, haunting tableau which, along with long hearing good things about the author, was admittedly instrumental in my picking the book up. I don't regret being suckered in by that hook. I simply wish the story itself had been stronger.

To be sure, the scenario set up in the story is fascinating... the old man, trapped in a room, with no memory of how he got there or where he is. Outside characters and events come through in hushed tones, and add much to the suspense, keeping you on your toes and guessing. You're continually hoping to find out more... to see what you can see. In many ways, it's like the "room escape" games that populate the internet. You want him to click the desk and have the desk state "you cannot open the desk". You want to check the window. The door. On and on. Knowing these items exist and are not fully explored makes the suspense build up in your chest.

The upsetting part, though, is that it never really gets there. The old man is too weak, distracted, or fearful to truly explore to the extent he could, or should. Extended sequences of him reading a manuscript put that anxiety of this man in his solitary, unsettling, constantly monitored room on pause, which frustrated me more than excited me. The worst part, though, for me, was guessing the ending a good halfway through the book. It made getting there and being right feel like finishing a chore. Not that the ending truly tells you what is going on. It remains shrouded to the last. But anyone who can get to the end and not grasp what is supposedly going on might wish to leave books of this nature alone.

What this book DOES do right is the excellent framing of scene, and building a knot tight in your stomach waiting for what's next in a story where not much truly happens. And the cover. That still rocks. It's just a shame that, for me at least, it devolved so thoroughly as time went on, until the suspense and intrigue that made it so appealing disappeared, and took the appeal with it.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Apr 07, 2011

Shovelmonkey1 rated it

Recommends it for: All established Auster Fans

Shelves: clear-unparalleled-genius, bookcrossing-books, read-in-2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is official. Paul Auster is the master mind messer. This book is an MC Escher drawing in literary form. *Spoiler alert*
Mr Blank is in a room. He can't remember who he is, anything about his past or where he came from. All he knows is what people tell him about himself and without knowing it he is under 24 hour scrutiny by a higher power, someone with an overall view of the situation. Characters enter the room, perform basic tasks and leave and almost the instant that they are gone Mr Bla...moreIt is official. Paul Auster is the master mind messer. This book is an MC Escher drawing in literary form. *Spoiler alert*
Mr Blank is in a room. He can't remember who he is, anything about his past or where he came from. All he knows is what people tell him about himself and without knowing it he is under 24 hour scrutiny by a higher power, someone with an overall view of the situation. Characters enter the room, perform basic tasks and leave and almost the instant that they are gone Mr Blank forgets who they are. So who is Mr Blank?

Well Blank is Auster and Auster has taken the opportunity to anonymously write himself and all the great characters from all his earlier novels (Peter Stillman, Walt Rawley, Daniel Quinn, Fanshawe) into this book. The empty room is Austers own imagination. An effective prison to Mr Blank because he can try to walk out at any time but he is paralysed within the limits of his own mind. No matter where he goes he will always be trapped inside his own head. The cast of characters, who outwardly appear benign are the characters that Auster gave life to in all those novels.

At the end of novel he is charged with cruelty, criminal indifference, sexual molestation and negligent homicide - these are all the things he subjected his characters to when he made them experience a life of his choosing and now they are back to get him. Mr Blank is about to learn that you can create a fantasy cast of people and send them out into the world but once they're out there they will keep on living and the tables are about to be turned as the author becomes the subject of a story over which he has no control in an environment not of his own making. He cannot even remember who he is and that is because he has no substance, he is being written into existance as the story progresses.

This book is probably a clever comment on what it means to be a writer - you can get caught up in your own head and in your own stories. You can come to believe that the people you create are close friends because you know them so well. Labels can be applied to anything and what you apply them to does not have to be constant or remain the same. Or it might be a comment on nothing.. who knows? But I enjoyed reading it and I was extremely pleased when I recognised all the characters names although if you've never read any other Auster novels then this is not the place to start. This is only clever if you're an Auster fan. If you're not then it probably just comes off as predictable pseudo sci-fi cheese.
(less)

like 4 likes

· see review

Feb 08, 2011

Elsje rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-2007

Ik ben helemaal van mijn stuk. Ik heb nl. zo'n goed boek gelezen: Travels in the Scriptorium van Paul Auster. Nu moeten die grrls die nooit eerder iets van Auster lazen, dit echt niet direct gaan lezen, want het wemelt er van de verwijzingen naar zijn eerdere boeken. En zonder die kennis denk ik niet dat het verhaal overkomt. Ik las tot nog toe slechts twee andere boeken van Auster: Oracle night en New York Trilogy.

Ook Travels in the Scriptorium is weer nadrukkelijk geconstrueerd, dus ...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 24, 2010

Bob rated it

· review of another edition

In the brief TRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM, Auster continues his lifelong investigation of authorship and language, with a big helping of old-man angst.

The central statement in this novel is "the paradox that we [characters], the figments of another mind, will outlive the mind that made us, for once we are thrown into the world, we continue to exist forever, and our stories go on being told, even after we are dead."

Well, that the stories go on being told depends on whe...moreIn the brief TRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM, Auster continues his lifelong investigation of authorship and language, with a big helping of old-man angst.

The central statement in this novel is "the paradox that we [characters], the figments of another mind, will outlive the mind that made us, for once we are thrown into the world, we continue to exist forever, and our stories go on being told, even after we are dead."

Well, that the stories go on being told depends on whether or not the author is more than clever. Here, Auster approaches something profound when he has a Mr. Graf (i.e. paragraph) searching for a Mr. Land in a hypothetical America. What does it mean for a nation to seek meaning? What do we say to each other across space and time? What binds us to each other?

Alas, these valuable questions--which might gain purchase in a Philip Roth novel--gets no dimension here because Auster buries them in a novel-within-a-novel, and focuses more on the narrative bauble that puts his author in a room that resembles a blank page. The lasting narrative Auster gives us is of a dying baby boomer, sex-obsessed, demented, and incontinent.

It's a self-indulgent exercise that devalues--by pilfering them--his earlier works, and leaves the reader wondering why, at 145 pages, this novel seemed so tiresome.

*

WHY I READ THIS BOOK: Some authors, for better and for worse, capture one's attention at an early age. For their entire career, then, the reader is bound to them--their career itself becomes a story to follow. So it has been with Auster for me.

The others: Sherman Alexie, the late poet Thomas McGrath, the novelist Leslie Marmon Silko. Add to these writers a dozen bands and filmmakers, a pantheon who helps translate the world into some kind of sense. Or not.

Auster, to my disappointment, or revelation, is more of a Woody Allen, Dwight Gooden, or Harry Nilsson… a genius who created an amazing, early body of work, then coasted. Fans keep wanting more, but are left to wonder whether the well is simply dry.
(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Jul 28, 2010

Fence rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Carl was kind enough to send me this book; one of the prizes from his Once Upon A Time reading challenge draws. And while it was the cool cover design that first attracted my attention it was the writing that meant I finished it in less than 3 hours.

To be totally honest I’m still a little ambivalent over the storyline itself. It is a day in the life of our nameless protagonist. Well, he is given a name, Mr. Blank, but we know that isn’t his real name. At first he appears to just be a...more

· see review

Jun 06, 2010

Aldrin rated it

· review of another edition

Travels in the Scriptorium is an account of a day in the life of an old man. Written so as to read like a proper report, it begins with a detailing of the man’s posture as he, confined in a sparsely furnished room, is perched on his bed. He has just awakaned, and he is now disoriented and without any recollection of his name and his whereabouts. He is therefore referred to only as Mr. Blank.

The report continues with an outline of Mr. Blank’s immediate surroundings: a desk, a bedside t...moreTravels in the Scriptorium is an account of a day in the life of an old man. Written so as to read like a proper report, it begins with a detailing of the man’s posture as he, confined in a sparsely furnished room, is perched on his bed. He has just awakaned, and he is now disoriented and without any recollection of his name and his whereabouts. He is therefore referred to only as Mr. Blank.

The report continues with an outline of Mr. Blank’s immediate surroundings: a desk, a bedside table, a lamp and a chair, all of which have labels taped hard on them, as if lack thereof would result in the objects’ ceasing to be or in Mr. Blank’s confusion as to what differentiates a writing desk from a reading lamp. On the desk, Mr. Blank later discovers, are a pile of black-and-white photographs of vaguely familiar people and a pile of typescripts, little of which makes sense to him. Unbeknownst to the perpetually bewildered Mr. Blank, his every move is being recorded by a camera installed somewhere in the room, his every utterance by a microphone. Who is Mr. Blank? Why is he being held captive? Who is watching him? Don DeLillo meets the Jigsaw Killer.

Given its restricted, nearly claustrophobic setting that offers little in the way of action and interaction, Scriptorium is replete with narratives of Mr. Blank’s supposed internal monologues about bits and pieces of his past that he intermittently remembers as well as blow-by-blow accounts of his internal bodily functions, especially those concerning urgent matters of scatology. In the hands of a less capable writer, a few sporadic pages dedicated to the latter, to the glorious acts of pissing, farting, and defecating, would almost certainly raise some eyebrows, but Auster is actually most compelling when describing such mundane affairs. With his satisfying brew of dark humor and cruel perversion, he reduces Mr. Blank to somebody who is nothing if not unable to expel at least two small chunks of crap from his bowels. And in that sense, Mr. Blank is the quintessential Paul Auster protagonist.

Mr. Blank is broken and uncertain, yet steadfast and stubborn. He is presumably trapped in the room. (A hotel room? Hardly. A hospital chamber? Quite probably.) He has little to no memory of what happened prior to his waking up, not even of the events of the previous day, and to add insult to injury, he has frequent bouts of vertigo. Most of the time he is unable to stand and walk across the room without running the risk of cracking his already messed-up head on the floor, making the chair, which turns out to be of the swivel rolling sort, his preferred mode of transport within his cubbyhole. He is Oldboy’s Oh Dae-Su sans the shadowboxing and revenge-plotting; he is weak and, as far as he knows, he has no friend, let alone a loved one to avenge. That is until a woman named Anna enters the room, carrying pills and telling Mr. Blank that everything’s going to be OK. Of course, experience with Auster’s novels dictates that almost everything is bound to end up the opposite of OK.

The same experience, as it turns out, proves useful in one’s appreciation of Scriptorium. Case in point: Anna’s last name is Blume. Anna Blume. Ring a bell? If your answer is no, that’s quite all right. But if your answer is yes, and you remember Anna Blume from Auster’s 1987 novel, In the Country of Last Things, then you are one puzzle piece closer to solving the guessing game that is at the heart of Scriptorium. If you also know James P. Flood from The New York Trilogy, then you’re awarded another piece to the puzzle. More characters from Auster’s past works come to visit Mr. Blank in his room, and some of them promise to help while at least one of them wants to kill him.

Who is Mr. Blank? Is he really a blank slate that the reader is supposed to fill in with whomever he or she wants? Why is he being visited by and haunted by memories of Auster’s fictional creations? Who is Mr. Blank? Take a wild guess.

--
Cross-posted on The Polysyllabic Spree.

(less)

· see review

May 24, 2010

Circus Folk rated it

Shelves: literary-fiction

This book started out as a very clever idea, an attractive, promising premise for a story. A man known only as Mr. Blank wakes up in an austere room with no memory of how he got there. Good premise, no? The writing lives up to the storyline. It is wonderful, minimalist, yet somehow very descriptive. The situation and mental tortures are almost Orwellian. The events and characters introduced were very intriguing. As you neared the end of the book you were starving to see how the author would tie ...more

· see review

Feb 20, 2010

Diane rated it

About four years ago I read a strange little book by Paul Auster called: Oracle Night, and only now have I realized my second Auster book: Travels in the Scriptorium, was the same kind of strange book. The cover (all black and white) is what drew me to this book: a stark white room with one window, a white horse and a desk and chair.

We are introduced to an older man who wakes up in this stark room; he is known as Mr. Blank. He does not seem to remember how he arrived to this room or ...more

· see review

Feb 04, 2010

Jim rated it

This is a fascinating read but the ending may well frustrate many because much is not answered. People who love shows like Lost where we're drip-fed clues will get caught up in this book right away but woe betide the network if that last episode doesn't answer all their questions. Auster does provide us with an answer if you've not worked it out yourself. No, Blank's not the president and, no, aliens haven't landed on earth. Having read a great number of reviews of the book I can tell you that n...more

· see review

Aug 29, 2009

Adrian Stumpp rated it

Shelves: fiction, contemporary, speculative, novels, american

This is hands down the worst book I read in 2008. The only reason it doesn't get zero stars is because goodreads won't let me do that, and because it is quite short, barely a hundred pages, and therefore only wasted a few hours of my life. Auster is a well respected author and this was my first and last foray with him. Here's what I think happened: He wrote a book and became famous. The publisher said, "Wow, this guy's selling pretty good. See if he has anything else." He says, "I...more

· see review

Aug 09, 2009

Larry Gordon rated it

A narrator tells us of a man, Mr. Blank, who wakes up in a room with no memory. He doesn't know if he is in a prison, an asylum or someone's home. By the end of the book, he and the reader still don't know.

Mr. Blank is visited by a number of people who have had some connection with his life. They provide maddeningly vague tidbits about their relationship to him and who he is/was.

Shortly after awakening, Mr. Blank is told to read an unfinished manuscript - a story about a ...more

· see review

Jul 11, 2010

ron swegman rated it

Shelves: novels

This short novel is a return to the leaner, more philosophical writing form that first established Paul Auster in America. The story is basically about the text, represented by the amnesiac character Mr.Blank, who is reconstructed through a narrative full of references to Auster's canon, until the end when it is revealed that Mr. Blank is the book itself. The style and cadence of the writing is closer to "Ghosts" -- the second installment of the New York Trilogy -- than to recent, more...more

· see review

Sep 16, 2009

Roozbeh Estifaee rated it

Paul Auster has definitely gotten some brilliant ideas. In this one also he had showed one of those nice things. The old guy who wakes up and finds himself in a completely strange room. And a writer who is moving the whole thing, doing whatever he wants to his characters. Things have been nicely related and formed an elaborated story.
The best part in my opinion was near the end of the book, when the old guy, Mr Blank, is making up the rest of the half finished he has read before that day. ...more

· see review

Feb 10, 2011

eliafen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: رمان‌های-خارجی

بعد از کشور آخرین‌های پل استر مدت‌ها بود که هیچ کتابی منو شگفت زده نکرده بود اما باز هم پل استر در کتابی دیگر منو کاملا به وجد آورد. این کتاب با ایده‌ی جالبی که داره و توصیفات دقیقی که ارائه می‌ده با ذهن خواننده به راحتی و با ظرافت بازی می‌کنه و در نهایت درست وقتی که ذهن آرام گرفته اونو به هیجان می‌یاره... توصیه می‌کنم اول کتاب "کشور آخرین‌ها" رو بخونید از پل استر بعد بیایید سراغ سفر در اتاق تحریر ( همونطور که دوستی به من این توصیه‌ی ارزشمند رو کرد)
اما به این کتاب 5 ستاره‌ی کامل...more

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 12, 2011

Kinkajou rated it

Never has my opinion of a book gone from "Wow, this is great" to "Wow, this is disappointing" so quickly.

Travels in the Scriptorium is the story of Mr. Blank, an eldery man, who awakens in a room without his memory. Based on the fact that he's taking "treatment" and is being visited by nurses and a doctor, he assumes he's in some sort of hospital or sanitorium. Throughout the day, which is the course of the book, various people visit Mr. Blank.
...more

· see review

Jul 30, 2010

Sherry Howland rated it

A man wakes up in a non-descript, sterile room with no memory. He doesn't know who he is, where he is or how long he has been there. He is consumed with a suffocating sense of guilt, but doesn't know why, or what he has done. On a desk are stacks of papers, manuscripts, written by people he doesn't know. Or maybe he does. There are also photographs of people he semi-recognizes, but this only pushes him further into guilt. He is visted periodically by strangers who are either contemptuous o...more

· see review

Feb 28, 2010

Carolyn rated it

· review of another edition

As usual, reading Auster is like diving into a deep, dark pool of MC Escher.

Mr. Blank wakes up disoriented, in a room where items are labeled as WALL or DESK. Is he a prisoner, or here by his own choice? He's not sure. A parade of personalities make their way to his room during the course of the day, lending some clues to his past. Also contributing to his regeneration of self is a manuscript left on the desk that recounts a foray from an unnamed country's government into its "...more

· see review

Jan 18, 2011

Gladia rated it

It’s really simple: you either like Paul Auster or you don’t. If you do, and I do, you will justify this misstep of the author to the point of thinking that you might even like this novel.

Travels in the Scriptorium has all the elements that made Auster famous: story in the story, characters already met in other novels, familiar names. Novels and characters recalling other novels is no novelty in Auster’s work but this time the writer abuses of it: Peter Stillman, Samuel Farr, John Trau...more

· see review

Jan 28, 2010

Elenor rated it

بعد از مندت ها کتابی بهدستم رسید که با خوندنش احساس رضایت بهم دست داد و اتلاف وقت نبود.
کتاب نگارش فوق العاده ا یداره و علاوه بر قلم قوی موضوع داستان هم به طور باورنکردنیه ادم رو جذب میکنه.
باید بگم قابلیت بلقوه ای در تبدیل شدن به یک فیلم نامه برای قیلم سینمایی یا تله تئاتر رو داره.
امید وارم شما هم از خوندنش لذت ببرید.( البته منهنوز تمومش نکردم )ا
.......................................................
تمومش کردم! اما اون جوری که انتظار میرفت تموم نشد.
شباهت بیحدی ...more

· see review

Dec 31, 2009

Carolyn rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 122 123 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (38)

More editions...

Genres

Novels

15 users

Literature

13 users

Mystery

10 users

Literature > American

9 users

Contemporary

9 users

Literary Fiction

7 users

United States

4 users

Book Club

3 users

Mystery > Detective

2 users

Philosophy > Metaphysics

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

The Enchantment of Lily Dahl
by Siri Hustvedt
The Memory Artists
by Jeffrey Moore
The Names
by Don DeLillo
The Havana Room: A Novel
by Colin Harrison
Windblowne
by Stephen Messer

About Paul Auster

After a year spent traveling in Europe, he enrolled at Columbia University and spent a year in Paris on an exchange. Returning to Columbia in 1968, he wrote articles and reviews while anti-Vietnam protests and riots raged around him. After publishing a crime novel pastiche, Squeeze Play, written under the pseudonym Paul Benjamin (who would later appear as a blocked writer in his screenplay for the...more

More about Paul Auster...

Books by Paul Auster

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About Travels in the Sc...

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Travels in the Scripto...

“The pictures do not lie, but neither do they tell the whole story. They are merely a record of time passing, the outward evidence.” — 6 people liked it

“I walk around the world like a ghost, and sometimes I question
whether I even exist. Whether I've ever existed at all.” — 4 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Travels in the Scriptorium
avg rating	preview: Travels in the Scriptorium Goodreads rating: 3.10 (2578 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/454.Travels_in_the_Scriptorium?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312023385m/454.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/454.Travels_in_the_Scriptorium?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster[/url]

Travels in the Scriptorium

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website