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The Romance of Libraries
In the halls of knowledge, amidst the towering stacks of books, more than just facts and fiction await. The Romance of Libraries is a collection of true accounts of emotional attachments formed in and with libraries and the library field. Madeleine J. Lefebvre has gathered personal narratives from around the world from people who work in or use libraries. From the very young to those in their nineties, these people share their tales of love. While most accounts are about romances that developed in a library setting, some are about romances with libraries themselves. Loosely arranged by context, the stories―happy, sad, or bittersweet―share an over-arching theme of the transformative and emotive power of libraries in our lives. Lefebvre's underlying message is that the physical library can play a role in our affections that the virtual library never can.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 4, 2019
An optimistic and reassuring book that love and romance avail themselves to all with open minds and hearts. I feel blessed to have read this collection. The entries proved short and sweet without preachiness. I intend to buy this in the near future. It astounds me how the best literature often lives unpraised.
xx-dnf-skim-reference
November 26, 2017Andecdotes that don't really delve into speculation about what the library actually meant to the ppl involved, except for one longer story I did enjoy, "Only Good Things Happen in the Library." Also, no other kind of love, like deep friendships or adopted grandparents or whatever. But hey, I did skim, so maybe I missed some good stories.
I'll check out www.libraryromance.com for more; maybe you should check there first.
*Never mind, it no longer exists, and I can't find any page for the author either.
I'll check out www.libraryromance.com for more; maybe you should check there first.
*Never mind, it no longer exists, and I can't find any page for the author either.
November 13, 2012
NOTE: This review originally showed up on my (now defunct) nonfiction book review blog. I read and reviewed this book in August 2008.
*****
In honor of my starting college this week to get my associates degree in Library Science, I decided to review The Romance of Libraries by Madeleine Lefebvre. It was a book that caught my eye while searching the (library!) shelves - a nice pink, cheery color. And who could resist a book about libraries and love?
I wasn’t disappointed - it was a fun book filled with stories about couples who met and fell in love in, at, or around the library. Compiled by Madeleine Lefebvre, they are all true stories and some are quite heartfelt. Most of the romances profiled worked out, but a couple did not.
All of them somehow related to the library, whether it was where they met, where one of the people worked, or where they got engaged. There were even a few marriages conducted in a library. (I am so jealous...)
If you want a light book to read, and you enjoy sweet stories about people falling in love, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy this book. Although libraries and books are definitely a part of the book, they don’t overwhelm it so don’t feel like you have to be a library aficionado to read it. You might find yourself down at the public library more often though (never a bad thing).
Like all compiled stories about the same subject, the stories seemed to run together after a while, and there wasn’t really much depth to any of them (since the stories were an average of two paragraphs long). This just meant that it’s a book you could easily pick up and put down at any time, and probably one you’d want to read in short bursts rather than all at once.
Havs
*****
In honor of my starting college this week to get my associates degree in Library Science, I decided to review The Romance of Libraries by Madeleine Lefebvre. It was a book that caught my eye while searching the (library!) shelves - a nice pink, cheery color. And who could resist a book about libraries and love?
I wasn’t disappointed - it was a fun book filled with stories about couples who met and fell in love in, at, or around the library. Compiled by Madeleine Lefebvre, they are all true stories and some are quite heartfelt. Most of the romances profiled worked out, but a couple did not.
All of them somehow related to the library, whether it was where they met, where one of the people worked, or where they got engaged. There were even a few marriages conducted in a library. (I am so jealous...)
If you want a light book to read, and you enjoy sweet stories about people falling in love, then you’ll thoroughly enjoy this book. Although libraries and books are definitely a part of the book, they don’t overwhelm it so don’t feel like you have to be a library aficionado to read it. You might find yourself down at the public library more often though (never a bad thing).
Like all compiled stories about the same subject, the stories seemed to run together after a while, and there wasn’t really much depth to any of them (since the stories were an average of two paragraphs long). This just meant that it’s a book you could easily pick up and put down at any time, and probably one you’d want to read in short bursts rather than all at once.
Havs
May 12, 2012
A collection of real-life stories of people hooking up through the library. An enjoyable read. Dipping in and out of this book was a salve to a busy day that didn't leave me time to read a novel length romance.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews