Arrangement and Description: Archivists At Large discussion

What is your favorite fictional archives and why?

The one in the Name of the Rose. Also, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in the Shadow of the Wind is a great concept. Both influenced by Borges, I think.

A toss-up between The Library of Dream, in Neil Gaiman's series, and the Library of Babel (Borges).

The former is a collection of all the books never written, for example G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was October (possibly a sequel to his actual book The Man Who Was Thursday?) and of course lots and lots of titles like The Best-selling Romantic Spy Thriller I Used to Think About on the Bus.

The latter contains all possible book-length combinations of the letters of the alphabet (with spaces and punctuation), meaning that every book ever written or unwritten is there, but so is a lot of meaningless drivel like "To be or not to be, wopi ne skg ienxuweo..."

Either one would be great to browse in, though the chances of finding something good is probably higher in the Library of Dream :)

LOL, the first two that sprung to mind were already mentioned (Borges and Eco). Hmm... can I go with Unseen University's Library? One has to respect a repository that commands the very metaphysics of space and time.

This sort of answer's both the questions, favorite fictional archives & archivist. This is not so much my favorite as it is something I've read recently so it I remember it. It would be hard to pick a favorite.

Larry Correia's Monster Hunter's International series has corporate library/archives and librarian/archivist character that plays a minor but very important supporting role. In the first two books, a former librarian/archivist - who is also a former U.S. Army demolitions expert - digs up information in the company archives that is essential to the outcome.

EC wrote: "...Larry Correia's Monster Hunter's International series ..."

Neat! I don't know that one, will have to check it out. Be sure to add it to the group bookshelf :)

I personally like the Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley (sequel to Parnasus on Wheels). I like to idea of a travelling wagon with all sorts of book in it. The Haunted Bookshop is called that because it is "haunted" by great authors and books.

Kathy wrote: "I personally like the Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley (sequel to Parnasus on Wheels)..."

Oh, I love that one!!

Laura wrote: "The one in the Name of the Rose. Also, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in the Shadow of the Wind is a great concept. Both influenced by Borges, I think."

This is perhaps one of my favorites. I also love the one in The Angel's Game.

Hi, I'm new here but I loved the library in Syrie James's book The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen. There was a library full of brand new old books plus a secret Jane Austen manuscript no one knew about. What could be better?

Oh yes, one can't go wrong with more Jane Austen!