Books by camel

I saw a unique story in yesterday’s newspaper about a library service in rural Kenya that delivers books by camel.

And you thought the bookmobile was rustic. Try having your books delivered by camel, then reading them under the shade of the acacia tree.

For 11 years, eager readers in Kenya’s isolated North Eastern Province have been doing just that, thanks to the Camel Library Service. Begun with three camels, the library, which operates close to the Somali border in Garissa, now has a dozen camels traveling to four settlements a day, four days a week, hauling the world of books to a semi-nomadic people.

After the books are spread out on grass mats under the shade, readers choose their books, which are written in either English or Swahili, the two official languages of Kenya.

This topic so intrigued author Masha Hamilton, in fact, that she wrote a novel about it – titled, appropriately enough, The Camel Bookmobile.

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