Stuart Kells is an author and expert on antiquarian books. His books include Rare, a biography of Kay Craddock, Penguin and the Lane Brothers: The Untold Story of a Publishing Revolution, and The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders.At the Guardian Kells tagged ten top libraries in fiction, including:
Peter Kien’s books in Auto-da-Fé by Elias CanettiRead about the other entries on the list.
Peter Kien, a middle-aged Sinologist, assembles some 25,000 volumes in his Vienna apartment. His insatiable appetite for books is matchedonly by the fear that they will be lost in fire. He marries his sturdy housekeeper with the idea that she will help keep the books safe. Instead, she forces him out of his apartment and he enters a nightmarish world of cutthroats, con artists, seedy bars and bungling police. The book ends with a powerful depiction of the horror of burning books.
--Marshal Zeringue
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