Tony Schumacher has twisted history in his thrilling debut novel, and makes us wonder what would have happened had Germany conquered England in WWII? The Darkest Hour (ON SALE TODAY!) follows John Henry Rossett, a hardened, former British detective reluctantly working for the SS in the Office of Jewish Affairs. But when John discovers a young Jewish boy hiding in an abandoned building, he breaks from the SS, and vows to protect the child and hopefully achieve what he has believed was impossible—redemption.
Tony joins us today to discuss the ties that bond – Library Books. Welcome!
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There is a post going around on Facebook at the moment. You’ve probably seen it: “List ten books that have changed you or stayed with you…”
Even though I spend my time on Facebook saying “please don’t tag me”… I got tagged.
I guess that’s what Facebook friends are for.
Seeing as I’m supposed to be a writer, and seeing as this was about books, and seeing as it might help me sell a few books (don’t hate me for being honest), for once I played along. Now, I spend a lot of time staring out the window thinking about words. It’s my job, but for once I’ve got to admit, it was nice to stare out and think about somebody else’s words. As the minutes went by, books came and went, like memories of long-forgotten friends and the good times we’d had together.
Hazy, probably better than they were in reality, but warm, happy memories that made me smile and want to have those times again. Once I’d completed the list and thrown it on the web something struck me—I realized I only actually owned about five of the books out of the ten on the list.
I searched my shelves, pulled a few books, sneezed a few dusty sneezes, and then counted them up.
Five out of ten.
Where are the others?
They are in strangers’ bags, lying under strangers’ beds, bookmarked in strangers’ toilets and on strangers’ shelves. They are passed around, they mingle at parties like the perfect host and start conversations among strangers, they wait for buses and they are read on buses, they whisper by flashlight under covers at night, they keep the lonely from being alone and they make friends out of those who are brave enough to look up and say, “I’ve read that, what do you think of it?”
They are, they were, Library books.
I wouldn’t have met them otherwise.
My family didn’t buy many books, money was tight back then, sadly, the same as it is for many people now. Choices had to be made and they mostly involved food and warmth. I was lucky though; my parents knew that next on the list of life’s essentials was knowledge, so they took us kids to the library and let us spend as long as we wanted among the whispering walls of books. I was let loose in the cake shop, and I was spoiled for choice. I learned about dinosaurs, jet planes, mountains, and men. I had adventures, dreamed dreams, traced my fingers over pictures, and got excited when the “new books” cart got filled up while I was there (can you remember the joy at being the first stamp in the book?)
I learned.
I learned I could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.
Bob Langley taught me that. His book Lobo—an account of his years travelling around the U.S.—showed me anything was possible, anything, as long as I tried hard enough.
I borrowed it twice from Huyton Library so I could read it again.
Lobo changed my life.
Huyton Library changed my life.
Countless libraries have changed countless lives.
Next time you are at work, take a moment, draw a breath and look around, if you can see a child flicking though a book with a faraway look in his or her eyes, watch carefully… you might just be witnessing history being made.