Forget the bookmobile, it's the biblioburro

October 22, 5:33 AMSeattle Books ExaminerDanielle Dreger-Babbitt

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Old school bookmobile

Q: What has 10 legs and nearly 5,000 books?

A: The biblioburro!

Move over bookmobile, there's a new mobile library in town.

For the past decade Luis Soriano and his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, have found a way to bring books into impoverished villages near La Gloria, Columbia.  The primary school teacher started out with less than 75 titles and now boasts a collection of close to 5,000 books.  Over 300 people regularly borrow books from Soriano, though like a real library on wheels, he occasionally has patrons to don't return the book.  Overdue books aren't the only thing Soriano has to worry about.

"And there are dangers inherent to venturing into the backlands around La Gloria. Two years ago, Mr. Soriano said, bandits surprised him at a river crossing, found that he carried almost no money, and tied him to a tree. They stole one item from his book pouch: “Brida,” the story of an Irish girl and her search for knowledge, by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho."

A local financial institution heard about his plight and provided some funding the construction of a small library near his home.  Unfortunately the funding has run out.  The lack of funds does not keep Soriano from weekly deliveries of books to the bibliophiles that live in Columbia.  Book bandits cannot keep him away.