Dragons in my bookstore?

January 31, 2012 8:50 PM

Taking a look for a book about a dragon who likes books.

Had a beastly time trying to google this; apparently, there are a lot of dragon-related texts out there and adding in book and medieval doesn't help.

Here's the plot as I remember it:

Starts in a vaguely medieval time, with dragons being taken down by nights. The main character is a dragon who is living with his (grand)mother. After inclement events, the (grand)mother goes deep into the earth (deep enough that she is presumably immolated, but this is never stated in text). The protagonist follows until his form becomes plastic, then returns to the surface.

After this, he finds he no longer gets hungry and instead changes size depending on how much he eats. He eventually finds himself living in a monastery, about the size of a rat, and becomes interested in the monks who create illuminated manuscripts. He lives there as time passes, eventually reaching modern day.

It finishes with the dragon living in a modern-day bookshop near the sea.

posted by caphector to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 answers total)

A Book Dragon by Donn Kushner?
posted by prenominal at 9:28 PM on January 31

It sounds very much like A Book Dragon, which is also one of my mother's favourite books.
posted by jb at 10:44 PM on January 31

The dragon becomes enamored of the manuscript codex the monks write, and it becomes the dragon's hoard; the book arrives at a bookstore that is threatened by sinister man who needs eating? Yeah, A Book Dragon.
posted by gentilknight at 3:32 AM on February 1

Nonesuch! Yeah, that's A Book Dragon. I loved that book.
posted by min at 4:33 PM on February 1

Yes, it's A Book Dragon. I can't imagine how that didn't come up in Google. Thanks, folx!
posted by caphector at 7:37 PM on February 5