The Library Book

There are some books you see everywhere and power of suggestion throws them into your lap.

That was The Library Book for me.

When I realized the book I had purchased in a blind rush for knowledge was not only a non-fiction book, but non-fiction where the writer is more or less a character of the story as well, I realized I would not survive in reading this book with my eyes.

It is nothing against non-fiction.

It is nothing against memoir or autobiography.

I simply do not* fare well in reading any of the above for pleasure**.

*Often

**This is clearly something I’m working through.

I went to my trusty Libby app, whereupon I have turned many a time when I thought I really wanted to read a memoir-autobiography-celebrity biography only to realize I did not want to spend my time reading such things, but would much more enjoy listening to them.

Does this make sense?

The long and short of all this is to say, I bought this book, it sat on my TBR shelf for a while*, and then finally, I decided to listen to it.

*It traveled from New York Ave, to our belongings’ holding cell, to our new home.

In the end, I will admit, the subject could cause some people to yawn, but all in all it was quite interesting for any book lover—especially those of us who recognize the importance of the written word and never allowing it to burn.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean documents a fire which occurred at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986, burning for more than seven hours, consuming 400,000 books, and damaging 700,000, while intertwining present day research into the library, librarians, and the suspected arsonist, Harry Peak. It is really a love letter to books. A recognition of their value and place in society.

Favorite Quotes:

“Writing a book, just like building a library, is an act of sheer defiance. It is a declaration that you believe in the persistence of memory.”

“Taking books away from a culture is to take away its shared memory. It’s like taking away the ability to remember your dreams. Destroying a culture’s books is sentencing it to something worse than death: It is sentencing it to seem as if it never lived.”

“The library is a whispering post. You don’t need to take a book off a shelf to know there is a voice inside that is waiting to speak to you, and behind that was someone who truly believed that if he or she spoke, someone would listen.”

Rating: 3/5