How To Live Forever by Colin Thompson - Bringing a city alive between the Bookshelves

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only once", These beautiful lines flash before me every time I see the illustrations in this book.

This book is one of the best for its extraordinary illustrations, Colin Thompson is both the author and the illustrator. He is famous for his drawings in Ravensburger puzzles.

Here is the Story and the Book Review :

There was a library with 1000 rooms ( which gives an aww feeling for book hoarders like me ). It had copies of every book that had ever been written, but one book was missing. Two hundred years ago, somebody had hidden the record card of the book in a cabinet, and so the book disappeared.

Every night, when the entire world sleeps, the shelves in the library come alive. Doors and windows appear on the books, lights are on, dogs bark, voices can be heard between the pages, and the shelves are joined by ladders and staircases. The entire library looks like a small city now.

Peter, a boy who lives in one of the books named Quinces on the cookery shelf, finds the record card of the missing book. The title reads "HOW TO LIVE FOREVER OR IMMORTALITY FOR BEGINNERS." Immortal—Peter loved these words and started searching for the book.

After a long search, Peter finds four old men. To his surprise, the old men have the book, but he can't believe it since all four of them are old, and that too after reading the book. Did the old men read the book? What is the reason for their ageing? Does Peter read the book? All these questions are answered in the rest of the story.

The story teaches us a valuable lesson, nothing is immortal, every life is subject to change, it is necessary to be functional, and change is required to value one's own life, without change everything in life becomes valueless. This was explained by the author in simple lines " To live forever means not to live at all"

Bringing a city alive between the bookshelves through amazing illustrations will make this read a spellbinding experience.