One day when her dogs are being unruly, Queen Elizabeth leaves the grounds of Buckingham Palace to find that there’s a mobile library just outside. She decides to go inside—much to the shock of the librarian and the one other person in the library—and while she’s there, she might as well pick out a book.
She can’t remember the last time she read something for pleasure, something she didn’t have to. (One doesn’t have hobbies or pastimes as a monarch.) When she returns to the library, she again finds Norman, a young man who works in the palace kitchens. She is taken by his knowledge about books and reading, and she moves him onto her staff.
The Queen’s sudden zeal for reading doesn’t sit well with her private secretary or even the prime minister. Because her reading becomes her singular focus—she doesn’t approach appearances with her usual demeanor, she’s often late, and she always has a book with her. And the truth is, she’s frustrated most of the time because she’d rather be reading.
I thought this was just so enjoyable. The way everyone around the Queen reacts to her sudden love of reading is both funny and a little sad. While I never read this when the book was published in 2007, to read it now, not long after the Queen’s death, gives the book an added poignancy.
How can you not love a book about the love of reading?
No comments:
Post a Comment