She came into the world as Joyce Columbia Bernur and when she left it in February of last year she was Joyce Columbia Book. She also left $77,000 to the Berkeley Public Library.
Book lived in the Berkeley area for the whole of her adult life and beside her love of reading and libraries she was also an early supporter of animal rights.
BPL Community Relations Librarian Alan Bern told the East Bay Express that in her later years “She was once heard to say that she wished she could just move into that library and live there for the rest of her days.”
When she could no longer get to the library she utilized the Berkeley Public Library’s Outreach home delivery program. She loved ‘cozy’ mysteries or mysteries with cats in them and was a collector of books on astrology.
Ms. Book R.I.P.
Story at the East Bay Express