The Library Book by Susan Orlean

This is the tale of The Library Book by Susan Orlean. The Husband first picked up this book, The Library Book, from our local library on or around October 16, 2019. I didn't finish it by the time it was due back. So, back it went, so sad and unfinished. I got it back again on 11/30-ish only to not finish it again. Then, got it back on 1/17/2020 and finished it, FINALLY, on January 24, 2020. This is one of the longest reads, aside from Hamilton, which is still unfinished. The first 2 times I had this book, it was just a normal book. The last time it came back to me, it was a member of Reese Witherspoon's book club. My, how things can change in a few months.

So - this book. It was.......... interesting. It centers mostly about the devastating fire at the Los Angeles Public Library - downtown / main branch on April 29, 2986 that destroyed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000. No one was ever tried for setting the fire, but the LAFD sued a man, Harry Peak, in civil court for the cost to fight the fire. Orlean talks in depth about the fire, the fighting of the fire, the aftermath of the fire, rescuing the books after the fire, restoring books after their rescue from the fire, and the life of the library after the fire. And much more.

She weaves in stories about the sordid and colorful history of the Los Angeles library and the head librarians. Not surprisingly it is filled with lots of men and thankfully some women too. She talks about the role libraries play in communities and how librarians are much more than book specialists. She also writes about libraries around the world and the roles they play and the struggles they've had.

For example, European libraries didn't fare very well during WWI and WWII. Among many atrocities, the library at the University of Louvain in Belgium was burned down by the German army in WWI. It was rebuilt after the war only to be bombed and destroyed again in 1940. It lost all of its books including over 1,000 that were published prior to 1500. Poland lost 80% of all its books. Kiev's books found themselves lining streets to provide traction for German armored vehicles. German troops burned more than 96 million books in Russia.

Each chapter begins with a list of books, like in a card catalog. Some books that I actually knew were in some of them as are some that I want to read, like Fox Tossing: And other forgotten and dangerous sports, pastimes, and games by Edward Brooke-Hitching. 

Why did it take me so long to read this book? It's dense. Really dense. And interesting, so I didn't want to skim or rush through it. It was slow-going. But I'm glad I finally finished it after 3 months.

The book is interesting, very well-researched, and is about much much more than a library fire. If you've got some time - give it a read.