"The Library Book" (novel, book club, development, human)
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I happened on "The Library Book," by Susan Orlean, and I'm so glad I did!
Technically, it's about the 1986 fire that devastated the Los Angeles library. But it's so much more than that. It's the poignant story of the fire and its aftermath, the mystery of the cause, her personal love of books and libraries, the development of libraries in the past century, the history of book burning ... and she's such a fun writer.
Our visits to the library were never long enough for me. The place was so bountiful. I loved wandering around the bookshelves, scanning the spines until something happened to catch my eye. Those visits were dreamy, frictionless interludes that promised I would leave richer than I arrived. It wasn’t like going to the store with my mom, which guaranteed a tug-of-war between what I wanted and what my mother was willing to buy me; in the library I could have anything I wanted. It was such a thrill leaving a place with things you hadn’t paid for; such a thrill, anticipating the new books we would read. On the ride home, my mom and I talked about the order in which we were going to read our books and how long until they needed to be returned, a solemn conversation in which we decided how to pace ourselves through this charmed evanescent period of grace...
You are correct~ her memories of her library growing up resonated with me as well. This was a book club selection for me which I just read last month and I was also quite surprised with how enjoyable I found the book.
What really amazed me was how I had no recollection, not even a vague idea of this happening.
As she explained, Chernobyl kind of took the headlines.
Anyway I agree it is a worthwhile read.
I have this on my TBR list and may propose it to my book club. Since it received some praise here, I picked it up as an add-on selection to my Book of the Month club selection for $9.99.
Haven't read any reviews, but libraries have always intrigued me. From getting taught how to properly research, how the system works, actually looking up references in elementary school - now it's search engines. I remember my Mom telling me to call the library (to get answers to questions). And the librarian actually answered your question - they were used to getting these inquires. Nowadays, it's all online. I walk in, grab my check out, scan it on the computer check out, walk out. A few times I interacted with a person to pay a few cent late fee. I like the small bar code library card and keep it on my key chain.
Sounds like a very interesting book. Thanks for the recommendation!
Libraries have captivated me ever since I was a child and love going to what I called the li-berry.
I live in a small town now, which has two small branches of the county library. Although the selection isn't as great as what you'd find at a larger library, there are still plenty of interesting books on the shelves, and I can always find something.
What's interesting is how much some libraries charge for out of area memberships. I'm in South Texas, and the library in nearby Bee County lets people from outside that area get a library card for $5 a year. That's a pretty good deal.
In Corpus Christi, cards for people outside the area cost $25. That's getting a little more expensive, but they have three branches. Still, with the library being an hour and a half away, I'm sure a lot of people start to think a Kindle might be a better option.
Finally, I looked up the price to get an out of area card for the San Antonio library system. They charge $200 a year! Yikes!
I can't help it - I want to add what might be my favorite paragraph. This is an early passage of her at the library in the morning, as it was opening.
Apuff of outside air wafted in and down the hall. Then, in an instant, peoplepoured in—the hoverers, who bolted from their posts in the garden, and thewall-sitters, and the morning fumblers, and the school groups, and thebusinesspeople, and the parents with strollers heading to story time, and thestudents, and the homeless, who rushed straight to the bathrooms and then madea beeline to the computer center, and the scholars, and the time-wasters, andthe readers, and the curious, and the bored—all clamoring for The Dictionary ofIrish Artists or The Hero with a Thousand Faces or a biography of Lincoln orPizza Today magazine or The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting orphotographs of watermelons in the San Fernando Valley taken in the 1960s orHarry Potter—always, Harry Potter—or any one of the millions of books,pamphlets, maps, musical scores, newspapers, and pictures the library holds instore. They were a rivering flow of humanity, a gush, and they were looking for baby-name guides,and a biography of Charles Parnell, and maps of Indiana, and suggestions from alibrarian for a novel that was romantic but not corny; they were picking up taxinformation and getting tutored in English and checking out movies and tracingtheir family history. They were sittingin the library, just because it was a pleasant place to sit, and sometimes theywere doing things that had nothing to do with the library. On this particular morning, in SocialSciences, a woman at one of the reading tables was sewing beads onto the sleeveof a cotton blouse. In one of thecarrels in History, a man in a pin-striped suit who had books on his desk butwasn't reading held a bag of Doritos under the lip of the table. He pretended to muffle a cough each time heate a chip.
Just love this.
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