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"I'm the disreputable dog. I'm your friend" <3 - Discworld is an obvious thing here. - Anathem has a distributed network of libraries of most knowledge with a

"I'm the disreputable dog. I'm your friend" <3 - Discworld is an obvious thing here. - Anathem has a distributed network of libraries of most knowledge with an interesting time-limited distirbution scheme. - Snow Crash has A Librarian -- and also a hypercard knowledge system. - If On A Winter's Night, A Traveller by Italo Calvino features books and libraries prominently. They're not exactly magical, but they're not...not magical, either. edit: it's not a novel, but the library in the sands in Avatar is another fine example of this trope.

whatrocks 8y ago
Thanks -- I'll be adding all these. Can't believe I forgot the Stephenson examples. The Calvino book looks great. And.. the Disreputable Dog. I'll always be her friend, too.
- hprotagonist 8y ago
  https://www.lrb.co.uk/v03/n17/salman-rushdie/calvino https://www.lrb.co.uk/v03/n17/salman-rushdie/calvino "I have quoted this line in full because it is the last example on record of a bad sentence by Italo Calvino." If you haven't yet, check out the audiobooks of the Abhorsen books. Tim Curry makes an excellent snarky cat with mysterious powers...
  - whatrocks 8y ago
    "instead of making myself write the book I ought to write, the (“neo-realistic”) novel that was expected of me, I conjured up the book I myself would have liked to read, the sort by an unknown writer, from another age and another country, discovered in an attic." Chills.
- hprotagonist 8y ago
  oh, hell. Sandman. Dream of the endless has a library full of all the books their author's didnt' write. Like Marlowe's "The Merrie Comedy of the Redemption of Dr. Faustus", or Wodehouses' "Psmith and Jeeves". How'd i forget that one... http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/12/15/the-library-of-dream/ http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/12/15/the-library-of-drea...
munk-a 8y ago
Discworld definitely, though none of the books focus really specifically on the library, the whole concept of L-Space and the related plots are wonderful.
- ur-whale 8y ago
  Not to mention the librarian :)

whatrocks 8y ago

Thanks -- I'll be adding all these. Can't believe I forgot the Stephenson examples. The Calvino book looks great. And.. the Disreputable Dog. I'll always be her friend, too.

hprotagonist 8y ago
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v03/n17/salman-rushdie/calvino https://www.lrb.co.uk/v03/n17/salman-rushdie/calvino "I have quoted this line in full because it is the last example on record of a bad sentence by Italo Calvino." If you haven't yet, check out the audiobooks of the Abhorsen books. Tim Curry makes an excellent snarky cat with mysterious powers...
- whatrocks 8y ago
  "instead of making myself write the book I ought to write, the (“neo-realistic”) novel that was expected of me, I conjured up the book I myself would have liked to read, the sort by an unknown writer, from another age and another country, discovered in an attic." Chills.
hprotagonist 8y ago
oh, hell. Sandman. Dream of the endless has a library full of all the books their author's didnt' write. Like Marlowe's "The Merrie Comedy of the Redemption of Dr. Faustus", or Wodehouses' "Psmith and Jeeves". How'd i forget that one... http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/12/15/the-library-of-dream/ http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/12/15/the-library-of-drea...

munk-a 8y ago

Discworld definitely, though none of the books focus really specifically on the library, the whole concept of L-Space and the related plots are wonderful.

ur-whale 8y ago
Not to mention the librarian :)