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The Library Book
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On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for mor
...more
Hardcover, 310 pages
Published
October 16th 2018
by Simon Schuster
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Oct 25, 2018
Angela M
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
netgalley-reviews
4.5 stars
Hundreds of thousands of books were burned to nothing but ash and hundreds of thousands of books were damaged - enough to bring chills up the spine of any book lover reading this book about the fire at the Los Angeles Public Library that occurred on April 29, 1986. The research and the writing here are impeccable. The descriptions of the fire, the librarians’ reactions, and the many, many volunteers who wanted to help - it’s as if it’s being reported in real time. The book, however, co ...more
Hundreds of thousands of books were burned to nothing but ash and hundreds of thousands of books were damaged - enough to bring chills up the spine of any book lover reading this book about the fire at the Los Angeles Public Library that occurred on April 29, 1986. The research and the writing here are impeccable. The descriptions of the fire, the librarians’ reactions, and the many, many volunteers who wanted to help - it’s as if it’s being reported in real time. The book, however, co ...more

This is absolutely brilliant nonfiction - and a book about books - about libraries! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
In April 1986, there was a large fire in the Los Angeles Public Library; so large, in fact, that over four hundred thousand books were burned completely and seven hundred thousand more were damaged. Initially, the thoughts were that this was arson, yet no one has been convicted, and a mystery still surrounds the act.
The Library Book accomplishes several things. First, Susan Orlean has researched the hi ...more
In April 1986, there was a large fire in the Los Angeles Public Library; so large, in fact, that over four hundred thousand books were burned completely and seven hundred thousand more were damaged. Initially, the thoughts were that this was arson, yet no one has been convicted, and a mystery still surrounds the act.
The Library Book accomplishes several things. First, Susan Orlean has researched the hi ...more

An ode to libraries past and present. To the importance of books, and how they are used by malignant governments, book burning, to control and frighten their citizens. Although the main focus in on the library in Los Angeles and the fire that destroyed it and so many of their materials, this book is so much more. The way libraries have had to change and adapt in light of our electronic obsession, in order to stay viable in our communities.
In a engaging manner, she takes the reader through histo ...more
In a engaging manner, she takes the reader through histo ...more

Susan Orlean was speaking with the Los Angeles Times about this book before its release....( I enjoyed listening to her speak on NPR as well).
When talking about her interest in writing about a big city library this is what Susan said:
“I could have done that anywhere. I like the idea of doing it in L.A., out of this
contrarian idea that people don’t associate libraries with L.A., which made it kind of delectable. That said, the 1986 fire ( forgive me), was a spark!
The reason I find Susan’s comm ...more
When talking about her interest in writing about a big city library this is what Susan said:
“I could have done that anywhere. I like the idea of doing it in L.A., out of this
contrarian idea that people don’t associate libraries with L.A., which made it kind of delectable. That said, the 1986 fire ( forgive me), was a spark!
The reason I find Susan’s comm ...more

Libraries have played a integral part of my life from the time I was a kid. My first library was the Bradbury Library where the magical world of reading opened to me and I participated in my first summer reading program. I graduated to more libraries, a larger world of books, conversations with librarians, and a variety of summer reading programs. When I first found out about Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, I was naturally intrigued by the title. When the description featured the 1986 Los Angel
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Susan Orlean is a true genius at bringing seemingly any subject to life in a manner which is utterly fascinating and immensely readable. I’d even read instruction manuals and Congressional reports if she wrote them! Whether it’s orchids, Rin Tin Tin, or unconventional travel adventures, her extensive research, writing style and the manner in which she weaves topics and time periods together results in books I recommend to a wide variety of readers. Her latest book, “The Library Book,” is an exam
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3.5* rounded up!
“The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”
This book follows, and is a thorough investigation, into the Los Angeles public library fire. This fire occurred on April 29 1986 and destroyed more than 400,000 books, as well as rare photographs, manuscripts and first editions. However, this was not largely publicised or given as much attention due the overshadowing ...more
“The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”
This book follows, and is a thorough investigation, into the Los Angeles public library fire. This fire occurred on April 29 1986 and destroyed more than 400,000 books, as well as rare photographs, manuscripts and first editions. However, this was not largely publicised or given as much attention due the overshadowing ...more

Jul 05, 2018
PattyMacDotComma
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
readers, book-lovers, historians, fire buffs
5★
“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story.”
For many people, I imagine libraries are like places of worship - everyone is made to feel welcome and part of a greater community.
In the case of a library, it’s a community not only of readers, but also of people looking for someone to answer their questions, migrants taking literacy classes, people needing help with bureaucr ...more
“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story.”
For many people, I imagine libraries are like places of worship - everyone is made to feel welcome and part of a greater community.
In the case of a library, it’s a community not only of readers, but also of people looking for someone to answer their questions, migrants taking literacy classes, people needing help with bureaucr ...more

Some of the fondest childhood memories I have were of my Mother taking me to the library. I held my Moms hand as we walked in and as so as I saw my section, I begged to let go of her hand as I nearly ran to grab new books that my parents and I would read together. My Mother’s arms were full of mysteries, best sellers, biographies, cookbooks and of course, my books. I loved seeing my Mom stack the books on the counter and then that sound. The sound of the library clerk stamping the library card w
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Aug 15, 2018
||Swaroop||
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
me-the-reviewer
My favourite hangout place is the Library. I so very much love going around through various bookshelves in the Libraries, especially the Central Library. It feels so relaxed and calming when I am in the Library. It feels like, I am among many learned and wise souls, who are in all these books. These souls care for me even though we are, in some cases, hundreds of years apart…
“A library is a good place to soften solitude; a place where you feel part of a conversation that has gone on for hundred ...more
“A library is a good place to soften solitude; a place where you feel part of a conversation that has gone on for hundred ...more

So, it turns out that people in LA do more than drink kale smoothies, have inventive but wholly unnecessary plastic surgery (“I just had my appendix done and it looks FANTASTIC on an MRI!”), and be impossibly (albeit generically) attractive while waiting tables hoping for their big break. In addition to doing those things, they also go to the library.*
A while back, I wrote about libraries, the internet, and probably something scatological (knowing me), but the lens of that piece was very much my ...more
A while back, I wrote about libraries, the internet, and probably something scatological (knowing me), but the lens of that piece was very much my ...more

Wow. ❤
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. . . if she could have chosen any profession in the world, she would have been a librarian.
December 6, 2016 was one of the greatest days of my life. It was the day I started work in the children's department of my local library. To this day, I still get a thrill every time I walk in the building via that special "Employees Only" entrance. I think to myself, "I can't believe I work at The Library," and I consider myself very, very lucky.
I'm sure by now you know that Orlean's latest book is about ...more
December 6, 2016 was one of the greatest days of my life. It was the day I started work in the children's department of my local library. To this day, I still get a thrill every time I walk in the building via that special "Employees Only" entrance. I think to myself, "I can't believe I work at The Library," and I consider myself very, very lucky.
I'm sure by now you know that Orlean's latest book is about ...more

My Rating: 4.5 stars
Have you ever come across a book that felt like it was meant for you to read and then afterwards occupies a permanent place in your heart due to the special connection you feel with it? Well, for me, Susan Orlean’s The Library Book was definitely THAT book (the reasons why will become more clear later on in this review).
I’ve had my nose in a book ever since I learned how to read at 5 or 6 years old (though my mom likes to tell people that I might have well been born with a ...more

This is a wonderful book about libraries. If you're like me, and borrow almost ALL your books from the local library, then you will like enjoy the fascinating information in it.
Not only does the author describes its history, how they function, interesting facts and figures, but she also focuses on the events surrounding the devastating, large, and mysterious fire that destroyed many titles of the the L.A. Central Library on 1986.
There is a short section devoted to Overdrive, the digital distribu ...more
Not only does the author describes its history, how they function, interesting facts and figures, but she also focuses on the events surrounding the devastating, large, and mysterious fire that destroyed many titles of the the L.A. Central Library on 1986.
There is a short section devoted to Overdrive, the digital distribu ...more

How can a lover of books resist a book about books? Such was my own dilemma with The Library Book by Susan Orlean. This one is a bit out of my normal go to reads being that it is non-fiction but occasionally I can’t resist when the book is about something that interests me and this one fit the bill wonderfully.
The bones of the story in The Library Book is centered around the biggest fire to ever hit a library that happened on April 29, 1986 at the Los Angeles Public Library. But along with learn ...more
The bones of the story in The Library Book is centered around the biggest fire to ever hit a library that happened on April 29, 1986 at the Los Angeles Public Library. But along with learn ...more

Library lovers will find this expertly delivered book enlightening.
SUMMARY
On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Central Library. The patrons and staff that had been cleared out of the building soon realize this was not the usual fire alarm. This fire was intense and disastrous. It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished it had consume 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. Investigators descended on the scen ...more


"A library is as much a portal as it is a place—it is a transit point, a passage."
I guess I'm a bit of an outlier when it comes to this book. It was OK, but nothing remarkable for me. I hate to say that because so many recommended it to me, and I wish I could say I loved it. It wasn't all bad though, not by a long shot. I had actually never heard about the Los Angeles Public Library burning in 1986, was unaware of the tragedy of so many books and items lost in this fire. I am glad to have read ...more

The very best books are often the hardest to talk about. 96 of my GR friends reviewed The Library Book. There are 8000+ ratings and over 2000 reviews, with only 3% under 3 stars. Susan Orlean's latest, an ode to the love of libraries, has been favorably reviewed by the best, including Ron Charles for The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Chris Woodyard for USA Today. Perhaps not as gushy were the industry reviews. Still, all in all, positive commentary. So what can I add to the love to en
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The largest library disaster in American history is the furnace at the center of Orlean’s story, which is fueled by regular additions of memoir, biography, history and science. In one particularly sobering chapter, she reminds us, “People have been burning libraries for nearly as long as they’ve been building libraries.” The number of books deliberately consigned to the flames is in the billions. “I sometimes find it hard to believe there are any books left in the world.”
But amid such gloom is m ...more
But amid such gloom is m ...more

If you love going to the library, you gotta pick this one up. While much of the book focuses on the devastating fire in 1986 at the Los Angeles Public Library, it's also full of tidbits of all the random things librarians and staff deal with on a regular basis. And by far the thing I loved most about this book was it really gets you to start reminiscing about some of your memories of going to the library as a child. I kept having flashbacks of the Summer Reading program with all the cool prizes,
...more

3.5.. mixed opinions on this, but I’ll post something later! It dragged on a bit too much at the end, and as I read, I got more exasperated.
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Okay! Time to explain myself.
In The Library Book Orlean aims to offer a well-rounded discussion of libraries, rooted by the story of the Los Angeles Library fire in 1986. When I read the summary of this book, there was a lot of emphasis placed on the library fire, which really drew me in. I was curious to learn more about it, and hoped this book would provi ...more
-
Okay! Time to explain myself.
In The Library Book Orlean aims to offer a well-rounded discussion of libraries, rooted by the story of the Los Angeles Library fire in 1986. When I read the summary of this book, there was a lot of emphasis placed on the library fire, which really drew me in. I was curious to learn more about it, and hoped this book would provi ...more

In April of 1986, the Los Angeles Central Library burned, losing hundreds of thousands of books and almost destroying a historic building; it was determined to be the work of an arsonist. Susan Orlean takes this incident and turns it into an all encompassing book that reads like a novel. We get a tale that includes the history of the library in general, and this one in particular. We get the story of the accused arsonist, the librarians, the effort to save as many books as possible, and communit
...more

I think I would have loved this book even if I wasn't a librarian.
Susan Orlean's latest subject is about a massive fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in April 1986. 400,000 books were destroyed; hundreds of thousands more were damaged. Fortunately, no one was killed. (If you haven't heard of the fire, you're not alone — it got buried in the news because the Chernobyl disaster happened the same week.)
The Library Book is a beautiful object (gorgeous red cover, gold font, dazzling blurbs from ...more
Susan Orlean's latest subject is about a massive fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in April 1986. 400,000 books were destroyed; hundreds of thousands more were damaged. Fortunately, no one was killed. (If you haven't heard of the fire, you're not alone — it got buried in the news because the Chernobyl disaster happened the same week.)
The Library Book is a beautiful object (gorgeous red cover, gold font, dazzling blurbs from ...more

It feels as though the author was searching for adequate information to fill this book. It covers so many topics, it spreads itself thin. It has breadth rather than depth. It is not only about the huge fire that destroyed the Los Angeles Central Library on April 29, 1986, but also about the man singled out as having started the fire. Yet you know at the start, his culpability will be left unresolved, and therefore, other topics of interest had to be added. Lots and lots of other information is a
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In The Library, Susan Orlean has written a book that takes an institution we all are familiar with, most of us intimately from our own lives, then moves both inward to a closer look at Los Angeles Central Library and outward to the history of libraries in the United States and, more recently, the world.
As she begins with the Goodhue Library in L.A., the focus initially is on a disastrous fire which began on the morning of April 29, 1986. The fire was devastating but serves as a springboard for ...more
As she begins with the Goodhue Library in L.A., the focus initially is on a disastrous fire which began on the morning of April 29, 1986. The fire was devastating but serves as a springboard for ...more

4-1/2 stars
I really like it, a lot. It was a great book to read as my last book of 2018. For me it wasn’t a “can’t put it down” book and even though that was likely more me than it (I’ve been more in the mood for fiction) I didn’t quite love it, though I have great respect for it.
The author is an storyteller and a great writer.
Her story is interesting, and ahe goes more in depth as the account goes on. The main topic is interesting for any library and/or book lover, and there are actually many ...more
I really like it, a lot. It was a great book to read as my last book of 2018. For me it wasn’t a “can’t put it down” book and even though that was likely more me than it (I’ve been more in the mood for fiction) I didn’t quite love it, though I have great respect for it.
The author is an storyteller and a great writer.
Her story is interesting, and ahe goes more in depth as the account goes on. The main topic is interesting for any library and/or book lover, and there are actually many ...more

The Library Book is a must read for every book lover. Susan Orleans chronicles the April 28, 1986 fire at the main branch of the Los Angeles Library which destroyed over 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. The cause of the fire has never been determined, and she extensively researches how events unfolded that day to attempt to solve the fire’s origins. However, The Library Book covers so much more than just the fire including the history of libraries, the role they play in a community and wh
...more

[3.5 stars] The Library Book is chock-full of fascinating information. Orleans focuses on the Los Angeles public library system and jumps from the 1986 library fire, to the history of L.A's libraries, to several personal stories about librarians, to a discussion about homelessness, to the future of libraries and more. My own interest jumped around as much as the book did. I gobbled up parts of it and skimmed some of the dryer history chapters including those about the accused arsonist (an unwant
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topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Kindle Book Club ...: SPOILER ALERT, The Library Book, Reading Completed | 3 | 17 | Feb 07, 2019 08:30PM | |
Reese's Book Club...: The Library | 8 | 243 | Feb 06, 2019 07:39PM | |
Kindle Book Club ...: Discussion, The Library Book, Reading In Progress | 4 | 14 | Jan 21, 2019 08:00AM |
I'm the product of a happy and uneventful childhood in the suburbs of Cleveland, followed by a happy and pretty eventful four years as a student at University of Michigan. From there, I wandered to the West Coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, where I managed (somehow) to get a job as a writer. This had been my dream, of course, but I had no experience and no credentials. What I did have, in spades
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“The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”
—
33 likes
“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen.”
—
23 likes
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