The City of Words

We ♥ Alberto Manguel at the Library. We love all readers of course, but Manguel has to be the king of all readers. He joked once that his tombstone should simply say, "It was a wonderful read." One of the reasons he moved to France a few years ago was that he knew he couldn't afford to house his 30,000 volume personal library in Toronto. So he renovated an old barn in southern France where costs were lower. This library-building was the genesis of his book, The Library at Night - his love song to libraries.

Manguel has written often and well about reading and books:

• A History of Reading (1996)
• A Reading Diary (2004)
• With Borges (2004).

And now he comes to town with a new book about reading, stories and books: The City of Words. This new book is actually the print version of this year's Massey Lectures, delivered by Manguel across the country this week and next. And we have the lucky opportunity to hear Manguel deliver lecture number 3, "The Bricks of Babel" in person: 8:00 pm, Friday October 19 - Myer Horowitz Theatre @ the University of Alberta. Tickets are $15 and are ONLY AVAILABLE IN ADVANCE through Ticketmaster [in St. Albert the Arden Theatre box office next to the Library is also a Ticketmaster office.]

This lecture and the others in the series will be broadcast on CBC Radio One's Ideas program the week of November 5-9, 2007. So, yes, go to the lecture tonight, applaud loudly and in November you can tell family and friends - "Yes, that's ME clapping on the radio."