In my explorations of the endless swarming and interbreeding of genres that is contemporary popular fiction, I recently discovered a new species. Among the proliferating subsubsubgenres of paranormal romance and similar breeds, I’ve noticed quite a few that feature libraries (or sometimes museums)—a fitting topic for fictions that are often very aware of the power of reading and also of their own indeterminate place in the Dewey system. Fiction about libraries has its parallels (and possibly origins) in more respectable literature with the fantastic fables of Jorge Louis Borges (his ‘The Library of Babel’ in particular) and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.
Here are some examples of the new form that I have come across (I’ve only read The Invisible Library so far—I enjoyed it very much):
Caine, Rachel, Ink and Bone, Novels of the Great Library, 1 (New American Library, 2016)
Cogman, Genevieve, The Invisible Library, The Invisible Library, 1 (London: Pan, 2015)
Hawkins, Scott, The Library at Mount Char (New York: Crown Publishing, 2015)
Hoffman, Alice, The Museum of Extraordinary Things (London: Simon & Schuster, 2015)
Schwab, Victoria, The Archived (New York: Disney-Hyperion, 2015)
And then, by chance (or Amazon’s algorithm), I came across this TV series, The Librarians—which appeals to me very much; does anyone know it?
