Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Library Book

This book was fascinating. I normally have a hard time reading non-fiction, but this book was so well written and so interesting that I savored every moment of it! The flow between following the library's history, it's present, and the fire was so smooth. The cast of real human characters was also wild! The book spoke to my love of libraries, even getting me teary-eyed at some points. One of my favorite books ever!

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akvolcano's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

3.5

Very informative on the central library and libraries in general! I have to say, I enjoyed the first 10 and the last 10 chapters much more than the middle 12. The author did an thorough research of the history of the library, and added (usually) appreciated thoughtful commentary. I listened to the audiobook and I’d recommend others to do the same!

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shirlev's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

“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.”

I can have a little vocational awe*, as a treat. This was an engrossing read about libraries, probably made more beautiful by the fact that it wasn't written by a librarian. There's definitely room to prod at the author's starry-eyed view of libraries as quasi-religious spaces staffed by priests of knowledge, but I don't think it's especially egregious.

I liked her treatment of Harry Peak, though I wish there had been a little bit more grappling with the connection between his seemingly pathological lying and his family's homophobia. The end of the Peak's story is unsatisfying, but that's what draws me to non-fiction in the first place- the challenge of making meaning when constrained by (what we think of as) the truth.

The weaving together of the three major threads (the fire, the broader history of the LAPL, and the current day workings of the LAPL) was a little clunky, and I'm not sure how much it actually added to present it in this way. Maybe the sections on the current day library are more interesting to people outside of the library world, for me they were the least interesting part of the story.

Overall, a great little book to hopefully ease me back into regular reading.

*If you are a librarian, or work in the "helping professions" (healthcare, education, religion, etc), or care about people who do, you need to read Fobazi Ettarh's "Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves". https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

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ncoletti's review against another edition

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hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced

4.0

About the Los Angeles Public Library fire in the 80s and the history of librarians and so much more, like homophobia , sexism, and flawed police procedures/politics. Made me want to be a librarian myself! Learned a lot and while the mystery remains unsolved, I too had a lot of sympathy for the main person of interest.

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hanz's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

Think I'd class this more as history or even social issues as opposed to true crime. The book jumps around a lot between the fire and its investigation, the history of the LA library and the current people and services of that library.

The history parts were my favourite and there were a lot of interesting facts about the people involved in the early stages of the library.

Occasionally hard to follow because it jumped around a lot and I found that some of the chapters ended quite abruptly and didn't really have a conclusion to add to the overall point of the book, however I'm relatively new to non fiction so could just be me.

The author also repeated used either he or she to refer to an arbitrary person, which was a little jarring and felt out of place with some of the themes of the book.

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unhallowing's review against another edition

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hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

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