Last year I stumbled across Bibliodeath by Andrei Codrescu. The title is tantalizing–the death of books? Isn’t that a bit of a hot topic for libraries, especially with the rise of digitization (it is, but to me it’s the duty of libraries to unbiasedly collect information about all subjects, even the controversial ones)?
This particular book in our special collections falls into the classification of Z: books, writing, libraries, and bibliography. While it falls alongside publication such as the New Colophon (a book collector’s quarterly) and other codices, this book holds the status of an autobiography hiding within an archival exploration. It studies the boundaries and relationships between printed word and digital word through metaphor and anecdote.
An Amazon review touted that “it may at times make your brain hurt, like a math problem”, and I find this to be an accurate description. As an exploration of archives and Codrescu’s own life, the writing and ideas are simply too elaborate to simply paraphrase, and a mere skimming of the book reveals little to me of its true motivations.
Though at first glance most of the personal stories remain in the footnotes, you quickly discover that the footnotes can get quite lengthy. One footnote referencing A Chekhov Novella extends for 5-6 full pages of the book, expanding out from the margins and crowding out the general text.
You might be wondering why such a book would be hiding in the Archives & Special Collections, and the simple answer is because it’s special. The actual reason is because it’s a signed prepublication edition.
If you want to make your brain hurt but also want to come out the other end of this novel with a new perspective on books and archives, come check it out any time on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday from 1-3 p.m. on the second floor of the library!
By Morgan Ford