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hello_sweetie11's review against another edition
4.0
This has so much Information! So interesting. It‰ЫЄs wild how full and in-depth this book is, but also how much more could fill the pages. It took a bit to read as I had to return it to my library halfway through because it‰ЫЄs popular right now‰Ы_ then had to wait until I could get it back. So many surprising moments, and pieces of history that are not usually told in ‰ЫПstandard‰Ыќ history books. So cool.
talypollywaly's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Dear god was this book a chore to get through. And yet I didn't learn what I picked up the book hoping to learn, and the end hardly touched the surface on the issues facing modern-day libraries.
arrianne's review against another edition
3.0
This was ok, but as somebody who loves books and libraries (I was a volunteer librarian in my school library at lunchtime and it might have been the pinnacle of my professional career) it was a bit dull and weirdly structured. It focussed on boring things for extended periods of time and I just wanted...a different book.
howardgo's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.25
I learned about The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen from a Jeff Jarvis tweet. I was intrigued by his comments and the subject matter of the book and added it to my read pile. I recently finished reading it and have to say that I was very disappointed.
The book is quite dry and very slow. In fact, it reads a bit like a graduate dissertation that was edited for the general public. The feel is that lots of facts were gathered together and linked with spare prose. The prose and the facts are interesting and informative but a long way from entertaining, at least for me.
Another drawback is that the book is almost entirely focused on Europe and the United States. There is no exploration of libraries or their history anywhere else except for the very brief discussion of the Library of Alexandria in Africa. Surely the Muslim world had libraries during the Dark Ages when Europe was basically struggling to simply survive.
As I said, this book wasn't my favorite. Maybe I came to it expecting too much. I certainly expected more than it gave.