Search - The Camel Bookmobile

This book has a fantastic premise, an American traveling to bring books to semi-nomadic Africans on the backs of camels, and I thought I was going to love it, but I ended up just liking it. The parts of the book when she writes about the power, magic, and mystery of books and libraries are great, but the rest of the story is so typical it just didn't work for me. Perhaps it is good writing to demonstrate the universality of the human condition, but I didn't want to read about infidelity, abortion, and the demise of friendship in the bush. I did want to hear a lot more about the reactions of the people to the books that were changing their lives.

sigh.... so boring i only finished it because i had nothing better to do.

This story takes you far away to the village of Mididima. Miss Sweeney is the American who comes to the village to share her love of reading with this tribe. Throughout the story the villagers felt like she was invading their way of life with her camel bookmobile, and really kept their fences up... but as you read on you begin to feel like they really are glad that she has brought them things to read and they actually look forward to her visits. There is some slight romance in the story that I did not expect and a great ending. I loved it!