If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 09, 2024 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, reading, italy, must-read, relationships, different-drummer, serendipity, books-about-books, imagination, favorites

I like quirky books. I like books-about-books.

As best as I can figure out, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a quirky book-about-books.

The novel begins:

"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade..."

Let's see if I can summarize the plot: Two people meet at a bookstore. They are both returning the same book, a book which they believe has been incorrectly bound. Someh I like quirky books. I like books-about-books.

As best as I can figure out, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a quirky book-about-books.

The novel begins:

"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade..."

Let's see if I can summarize the plot: Two people meet at a bookstore. They are both returning the same book, a book which they believe has been incorrectly bound. Somehow that book morphs into many other books, which the two follow. Along the way, there are many delightful and intriguing philosophical musings shared about how we make meaning of the world as well as reading itself.

Here's a sample:

"...you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven’t Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn’t Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You’ll Wait Till They’re Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out: the Books You’ve Been Planning To Read For Ages, the Books You’ve Been Hunting For Years Without Success, the Books Dealing With Something You’re Working On At The Moment, the Books You Want To Own So They’ll Be Handy Just In Case, the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer, the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves, the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified..."

Calvino, Italo. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (p. 5). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

This will go on my list of favorites. ...more

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