Published in 1979, If on a winter’s night a traveler, is an inventive novel by Italo Calvino that alternates between a narrator and ten different writers, weaving a rich tapestry about the interconnectedness of reading and writing, the relationship of beginning and continuing. Each of the numbered chapters (1-12) is written by a narrator, writing in the second person, describing what is happening to the novel’s reader (you). The chapter that immediately follows is the beginning of ten different novels (from different genres, including a mystery, a lover story, a mock biography, a political satire) written in the first person.
In 2009, The Telegraph, ranked Calvino’s novel 69th in their list of “100 Novels Everyone Should Read.” The book is a favorite among bibliophiles for obvious reasons; however one of the most popular passages comes from Chapter One, where the narrator describes how you navigate through the different sections of a bookstore: “In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven’t Read, which are frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you…” In total, Calvino identifies 22 different sections in a bookstore. So next time, dear reader, when you are in a bookstore, see if you can identify all of these:
Books You Haven’t Read
Books You Needn’t Read
Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading
Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written
Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
Books Too Expensive Now And You’ll Wait Till They’re Remaindered
Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
Books You Can Borrow From Somebody
Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too.
Books You’ve Been Planning to Read for Ages
Books You’ve Been Hunting for Years Without Success
Books Dealing with Something You’re Working on at the Moment
Books You Want to Own So They’ll Be Handy Just in Case
Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time to Re-read
Books You’ve Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It’s Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them
New Books Whose Author Or Subjects Appeals To You
New Books by Authors Or On Subjects Not New
New Books by Authors Or On Subjects Completely Unknown
Read related posts: I Am What Libraries Have Made Me
If You Love a Book, Set it Free
The Library without Books
The Power of Literature
For further reading: If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (translated by William Weaver), Knopf (1993)
Atkins Bookshelf 