Free The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers Page A

(as we reported) disappeared without trace. Sundry attempts to bring him to the surface by lowering ropes and chains proved fruitless, nor did he respond to persistent calling and knocking. He is now assumed to be a tragic fatality.”’
    I signed to the dwarf to pause for a moment. I needed to digest this information first! So there were a whole series of these so-called ‘shafts’ in Bookholm. How many in all? And why was my shaft smaller than Ugor Vochti’s?
    ‘Please go on,’ I said.
    He went on:
    ‘“Locals have given the new phenomena a name. The ‘Bookholm Shafts’ are born!
    ‘“The burnt-out funnels that have created new entrances to the Labyrinth have at last acquired a name. Having quickly become known in the vernacular as ‘Bookholm Shafts’ (on account of their shaftlike conformation), this somewhat unscientific but popular neologism has been added to its geological vocabulary by Bookholm University and is thus in common parlance.”’
    ‘Oh, me got many articles on shafts … Many …’ muttered the gnome, foraging for more information. He held up another galley. ‘Me fast-forward!
    ‘“The ‘Bookholm Shafts’ are stabilised!”’
    he cried. ‘“The ‘Bookholm Shafts’, so often a current topic of conversation, have in recent days (as we reported) been more thoroughly explored and stabilised. Buttresses have been installed and concrete foundations poured, steps and ladders erected and the areas around the entrances secured with balustraded walk-in platforms. Entering these shafts no longer presents any real danger, though few people have so far been permitted access. The official long-term aim is to render the ‘Bookholm Shafts’ accessible to all.”’
    I raised my paw. ‘You mean you never even tried to fill these things in? You actually
developed
them for opening to the public?’ I was horrified.
    The dwarf merely glared at me. Interjections clearly displeased him.
    ‘“Bookholm Shafts Given Individual Names!”’
    he read on defiantly. ‘“The Bookholm Shafts have been officially declared urban thoroughfares – in administrative terms, streets. This, in turn, has confronted the local government authorities with the task of giving them names. They have resolved, as in the case of many of our streets, to name them after well-known authors. But which shaft will get which author’s name? This is still undecided and is bound to cause fierce controversy in the immediate future. We can hardly wait to hear which authors are assigned a Bookholm Shaft. The issue will certainly give rise to heated arguments.”’
    It certainly would! I really couldn’t see why the Optimus Yarnspinner Shaft was smaller than the Ugor Vochti Shaft. Vochti had written a few reasonable poems, but his entire prose output consisted of dusty old, deservedly forgotten novels. However, I kept these thoughts to myself so as not to confuse my guide. He was performing his task extremely well, though I could only shake my head at what had been done about those holes in the ground. To me they still seemed like gates of hell from which the apocalyptic hordes of darkness might burst forth and ravage the city, but the sole concern of Bookholm’s inhabitants seemed to have been whether to name one shaft after Orca de Wils or another after Balono de Zacher. That was pretty casual of them.
    ‘“Aleisha Wimpersleake Shaft Ceremonially Inaugurated!”’
    declaimed the dwarf as if he’d read my thoughts.
    ‘“The first Bookholm Shaft has at last been given its official name! It was no great surprise to learn that the chosen name was that of Aleisha Wimpersleake, the classic of classics, the bedrock of Zamonian literature. Nor was it any surprise that the largest of the new entrances to the Labyrinth has been named after him.”’
    In the old days most of the entrances to the catacombs had been anxiously walled up and access to them left to Bookhunters, adventurers, lunatics and suicides, whereas entering them