Seeing This Goodly Vessel Read Before Us

We were struck recently by this, the thought of a more mature, more modern Anthony Monday becoming a library page. Not in a brick-and-mortar library but behind the wheel of a bookmobile. This was followed by the disturbing thought of Miss Eells behind the wheel. She’s driven before, of course, but the mere thought of such activity only brings her clumsiness to the forefront.  Throw in Emerson Eells and a talking dog (Brewster?) and you might have a clever, coterie of crime-solvers.


That we were considering bookmobiles was because two fans of John Bellairs wrote to us this month to promote their project: a mobile bookstore. The vehicle is named Jolene Lenore, the project is called the Road Virus, and it plans to specialize in fringe literature:

Focusing primarily on horror, we also carry other marginalized genres such as sci-fi, fantasy, crime/thrillers, true crime, queer studies/lit, and more. In specializing in fringe literature, The Road Virus will serve as a venue proving to be an outlier’s dream. No longer will someone with a different worldview need to walk into a bookstore and immediately beeline for the back shelf consisting of one or two rows of books. Instead, amongst our shelves, you will find yourself literally surrounded by words and stories trained on releasing the darker parts of life.

In addition to selling books, we will also promote literacy through community outreach, hosting special events, and providing a platform for those with a more clandestine worldview to come together and read.

Em (a former librarian) and Sade (an author) are the two behind this exciting ride. They’ve been out on the road with Jolene Lenore this past month. Once they get settled, we’ll post our interview with them and learn some of their Bellairsian influences. In the meantime you can read more about their endeavor and visit their fundraiser page.