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ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- You know when you find that amazingly quirky and unexpected book, then you want everyone to know about it? This is that book for me so far this year! Iceland apparently has more museums per capita than anywhere else in the world, and most of them only came into being since the 90s. Often they are small and single-focussed, and the result of an individual or a small group of friends who decide that such-and-such a collection should now be made public. Sometimes they started as a family joke (The Phallological Museum - yes, phalluses) or a longstanding habit (Petra's Museum of Stones - for decades she collected a stone on her daily walk) or as a memorial (the Bird Museum - dedicated to a local who drowned). Then there's the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery, or the one for Sea Monsters, or the one dedicated to the Herring Era - and many more. This is not just a travelogue of Iceland (though it does describe the landscape and people she meets) nor a history (though it does explain Iceland's past) and it's certainly not one of those tiresome books where the author is all I-me-I-me; it's a beautifully written meditation on collecting, what is deemed worthy of keeping, why people are driven to keep and treasure things no-one else even notices, and the art of curation. Really, a fabulous book about something you didn't even know you needed or wanted to read about, but one that will certainly be worth reading and one that will stay with you long after you've put it down and started planning a trip to Iceland yourself... Lindy Jones
Kendra Greene began her museum career marrying text to the exhibition wall, painstakingly, character by character, each vinyl letter trembling at the point of a bonefolder. She became an essayist during a Fulbright grant in South Korea, finished her MFA at the University of Iowa as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow, and then convinced the Dallas Museum of Art they needed a Writer in Residence. Of late, she is a Visiting Artist at the Nasher Sculpture Center and a Library Innovation Lab Fellow at Harvard University.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- You know when you find that amazingly quirky and unexpected book, then you want everyone to know about it? This is that book for me so far this year! Iceland apparently has more museums per capita than anywhere else in the world, and most of them only came into being since the 90s. Often they are small and single-focussed, and the result of an individual or a small group of friends who decide that such-and-such a collection should now be made public. Sometimes they started as a family joke (The Phallological Museum - yes, phalluses) or a longstanding habit (Petra's Museum of Stones - for decades she collected a stone on her daily walk) or as a memorial (the Bird Museum - dedicated to a local who drowned). Then there's the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery, or the one for Sea Monsters, or the one dedicated to the Herring Era - and many more. This is not just a travelogue of Iceland (though it does describe the landscape and people she meets) nor a history (though it does explain Iceland's past) and it's certainly not one of those tiresome books where the author is all I-me-I-me; it's a beautifully written meditation on collecting, what is deemed worthy of keeping, why people are driven to keep and treasure things no-one else even notices, and the art of curation. Really, a fabulous book about something you didn't even know you needed or wanted to read about, but one that will certainly be worth reading and one that will stay with you long after you've put it down and started planning a trip to Iceland yourself... Lindy Jones
A delightful, lyrical tribute to those who gather, record and preserve. This is a book brought to life by its own subject matter: by curiosity, obsession and the desire to share with others our own sense of wonder -- Malachy Tallack, author of * The Valley at the Centre of the World * With each chapter Greene circles around her subject as if viewing it in a vitrine, approaching it from different angles, changing her register and voice. The book is shot through with glee and irreverence... Greene's mind doesn't move in lines, either curved or straight, but in weaves and knots, new threads radiating from each tangle of concepts...delightfully looping, oracular, faux naif; The Museum of Whales You Will Never See is work not of cataloguing and curating, but of longing and love * Guardian * Wonderfully quirky * Telegraph * [Greene's] museum tour captures the magical charm of this wild, idiosyncratic country -- Books of the Year * Financial Times *
