The Library Book

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Point is.....I didn’t come close to having the experience that Susan Orlean had - with books and reading- as she did. I don’t have ‘mom & me’ reading memories to draw on and my dad died when I was 4.

It speaks of the central library of Cologne, which will be completely rebuilt by 2026. The architects mentioned in the article want libraries to become fully fledged "third locations" (the first being one's home, the second your school or place of work). The only wish I had for this book is that they spent more time in Asia and talking through books there and how, even if very different, libraries existed and manifested. There is only passing references through the books outside of India and almost no color on Africa and Southeast Asia.

In contrast, young Tom is gearing up to take his GCSEs but finds life at home to be trapping him in a way he feels he cannot escape. He is older beyond his years and the situation between Tom and his father was so poignant and emotive. Heading to the library literally opens doors for Tom and I was cheering for him throughout the story with the hurdles he faces. On the surface, you would not expect Tom and Maggie to become such close friends and the familial relationship that develops shows just how much each character needed one another – they just didn’t realise it. I think I also appreciated how Osborne subverts stereotypes with Tom’s character in his actions and reading choices, making him even more memorable in the story. This book covers the evolution of the Library from the status symbol of the nobility, through professional personal libraries of scholars and merchants, subscription libraries and all the way to the public good that they are today, with additional insights of the value different people place on them. I find it quite surprising just how late fiction was allowed into the hallowed halls of libraries. This past year - I’ve used the public library system daily .... a zillion times more in one year ( at age 66)....than ALL my past years combined. Some readers might be appalled -aghast at such ‘horror’. I’m only telling the truth. I wasn’t much of a reader as a kid - I remember some lovely walks I took alone or with a friend to the library as a child to listen to ‘the storytelling lady’......but reading wasn’t encouraged in my family. Not really. Actually nothing was encouraged - other than ‘good behavior’ at school and elsewhere. Many of you have heard this before - I’m a very late bloomer passionate reader. I fell in love with reading-for-pleasure accidentally as an adult the year the book “The Glass Castle”, by Jeannette Walls came out in the year 2006. I’ve already shared my reading process in my Glass Castle review.....

What is so delightful about Tom and Maggie is the way they not only bring out the best in each other but support each other through difficult times. Tom needs someone to care and nurture him and help him deal with his Dad while Maggie needs company and the joy of having a boy around, experiencing the delights of a farm for the first time. It was also lovely to see Tom open himself to learning new things, like yoga and discovering the joy of reading, to the point of becoming confident in talking about books with Maggie and others. There seems to be no shortage of books lately about the threat of closure to a beloved community library - this is one of two I have right now. Unfortunately, it’s a reflection of the real-life threat to public libraries, so if I take nothing else away from this book, it’ll be a reminder of how grateful I am to have an awesome community library where I live and to continue to support it! For Maggie the library has become her routine weekly social outing. She catches the bus into town where she can mingle among people with minimum fuss. She meets up with the book club group and interacts with them about their latest book read, and that’s enough for her. It’s not that she dislikes people, she just doesn’t want the complications or commitment required of close friendships. Her weekly library visits sustain her emotional and intellectual needs. However, while more and more towns seem to finally modernize their libraries and work hard to make more people want to come, some threats have never truly gone away: Overall, this was a good reading experience, though it could have worked even better had I not gone in expecting something else. The story is sweet and the main characters are loveable. And that makes up for the other shortcomings to a great extent.I really enjoyed the first half of this book, but as I continued, I began to get more frustrated. If you are curious about library history and the LA public library system, then I would definitely read this book, just to learn some history. Orlean's writing is strong and propels the book forward, at least making this a pleasurable read. I did really enjoy parts of this book, so I can't completely write it off. The Nazis weren't the last to burn books and authors, their publishers and translators are still at mortal risk (as can be seen by Salman Rushdie's story that claimed several lives already). Not to mention the new rise of censorship, even or especially in 1st-world-countries that really should know better. Like the rest of you, I always thought the library would be here. I never expected it to be under threat. It’s a stark reminder to not take anything in life for granted. You only properly start fighting for something when you realise you’re going to lose it.” Her interaction with others is mostly limited to her sharing some jobs with her grumpy but reliable old neighbour in return for the occasional assistance on some other job too big for one.

This was such an amazing and thorough recounting of the make up and scope of libraries from ancient times until now. I was impressed with the amount of detail and research that went into this and the writing was far from dry as it wove through time and scope. This book is about the history of libraries, mostly in the western world, from ancient times until the current era. The authors, I have found, specialise in the history of early printed books, Reformation Europe and the book trade. It seems to me that they have written a book focusing on these topics while presenting it as a broader history of libraries. Only the last part (of 6) was about the 20th century, which after the devastating impact of the Second World War on libraries, saw the biggest technological revolutions since the invention of moveable type and printing presses – that is, the provision of computers for library users, electronic library management systems, barcodes, radio-frequency identification, the internet, ebooks – and which gets so little attention. Maggie Mann. Seventy-two. Widowed. Lives on a farm with her animals and her garden. Lonely. Discovers that her weekly book club at the library is a wonderful opportunity to find interaction with other bookworms. This was a lovely, heartwarming story about the families we make and not being afraid to rely on others. The narrative is hard to follow, especially since Orlean introduces so many different 'story lines'—historical (sometimes multiple historical threads going at once), observational, her own memories— and then alternates between each one in chapters that vary in length. While this usually keeps a book moving and helps me maintain focus, I found it hard to remember the details of the previous section on that same topic when I returned to a chapter on that same topic.I began my career working on aspects of the European Reformation. My first book was a study of religious refugee communities in the sixteenth century, and since then I have published on the Dutch Revolt, and on the Reformation in Germany, France and England, as well as a general survey history of the sixteenth century. In the last years the focus of my research has shifted towards an interest in the history of communication, and especially the history of the book. I run a research group that in 2011 completed a survey of all books published before1601: the Universal Short Title Catalogue. This work continues with work to incorporate new discoveries and continue the survey into the seventeenth century.