By Nora Vasconcelos
Some weeks ago, while I was on vacation, I got into a library and started wandering around. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, I was just enjoying the fulfilling experience of being there.
Of course I looked at the book titles, and even though I was tempted to read many of them (some of which I had already at home) I resisted it and kept on looking, until… of course I took one.
The funniest thing that has happened to me in a library, as the title of this particular one was The burglar in the library!!! It was so hilarious finding this title right in a library!!! I had to read it!!!!
So I borrowed the book, of course, and I have to say that it was kind of funny when I stated the title on the library log. I even had that funny senstation of checking if someone was looking over my shoulder… And I think someone was…
Anyways, I borrowed the book from the library and started reading it right away. I had never read anything by Lawrence Block, and I felt somehow bad as I love mystery books a lot. But, it’s never late to start, right?
The first two chapters passed like time itself, fast. Then I couldn’t just leave the book there, sitting in my room and I started to take it everywere I went… then the fun continued as everytime I encountered someone I knew, they asked me “What are you reading”…
I’ll never forget the expression on their faces when they read the title, expression followed (everysingle time) by the inevitable question, “but you’re returning that book to the library, aren’t you?”.
Suddenly I felt that I had become an accomplice of Bernie Rhodenbarr, the main character of this book, who, happens to enter a British Cotagge style hotel in the oustkirts of New York city, just to get a unique copy of a valuable book written and autographed by a famous author some time ago.
It was even funnier because right below the title was pasted a huge stamp that noted “this book belongs to the library”.
So, feeling myself like a character created by Block, I just smiled at the situation, enjoyed every single page of the book, and journeyed along the guests of the British-like cottage created by Block, as they were followed, room by room, by mysterious events that made them fear, doubt and bond to each other during a strange weekend that went way beyond the walls of the library, and that finally made Bernie Rhodenbarr realize that getting this book for his personal benefit wouldn’t be that best of all ideas.
As for me, it’s needless to say that I returned the book to the library right on time.
