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deecue2 's review for:
The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
As much as I generally liked the book it left me feeling disappointed. I had the same experience with [b:The Orchid Thief|228345|The Orchid Thief|Susan Orlean|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328347217l/228345._SY75_.jpg|911511] The author has a talent for finding interesting things to say about unusual topics and she elevates quirkiness to high comedy. But to my mind these two books lack necessary cohesiveness.
In this book the main theme appears to be a devastating fire at the central building of the LA Public Library in 1986. From that topic she weaves together lots of chapters about personal experiences at libraries along with general historical information and modern day innovations and challenges confronting library systems all over the country. Most of the chapters are good or very good but they just don't fit well together and I couldn't ever understand why she jumped in and out of the fire chapters when she did.
The fire chapters worked best early on and got less interesting as the book progressed.
In this book the main theme appears to be a devastating fire at the central building of the LA Public Library in 1986. From that topic she weaves together lots of chapters about personal experiences at libraries along with general historical information and modern day innovations and challenges confronting library systems all over the country. Most of the chapters are good or very good but they just don't fit well together and I couldn't ever understand why she jumped in and out of the fire chapters when she did.
The fire chapters worked best early on and got less interesting as the book progressed.