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The Camel Bookmobile
Thursday, February 22, 2007

Camels aren't just for lovers anymore. They're also for bookworms!

The provincial library system in Kenya uses a Camel Bookmobile and -- proof that anything can be subject of a novel -- someone has now written a novel about it. GalleyCat has the details, and the picture worth a month's worth of overdue book fines.

Masha Hamilton's forthcoming novel, The Camel Bookmobile, has its origins in a real book distribution network the author encountered in northeast Kenya, which delivers books in Swahili and English to villagers. The Garissa Provincial Library is always glad for new inventory, especially considering the beating their books take in transit, so Hamilton has helped set up a book donation drive with several dozen authors already contributing five books apiece to the program. You don't have to be an author to donate books—and a five-pound box of books to Kenya costs just $23.

Here's another report, from Maude Newton:

When I first mentioned the camel library service a few years back, I had no idea how many people rely on it.
Since then, author Masha Hamilton has accompanied the camels on trips through Kenya’s isolated Northeastern Province, “near the unstable border with Somalia,” during a drought, and returned with photos and a video showing the crowds of people who gather every time the “bookmobile” visits.
“[T]he bush is hard on books,” she writes, “and the traveling library needs more.”
[L]ibrarians in the Northeast Province who travel with the camel bookmobile told me children’s storybooks are most popular, general fiction is also high on the list, and much interest is shown in nonfiction books covering topics ranging from astronomy to geography to history. The librarians also said patrons especially love it when a book is inscribed with a note from the sender. It helps them feel connected to places only barely imagined.
You know that box of old textbooks and novels you keep meaning to drop off at the Salvation Army? Well, donation instructions are here.

Labels: Camels

Posted by B Feiler at 7:03 AM
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