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offictionandfantasy 's review for:
The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
"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."
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Library Book is a book full of many different stories. We begin by following the author's explanation of why they feel a personal connection libraries, and then divulge into two paths: different fragments of stories explaining how the Los Angeles Public Library came to be and the story of the main suspect in the 1986 fire involving said library.
The fragmented stories of library history I found incredibly interesting, like bits of a documentary in short episode formats or different informational articles. They were all usually unrelated from one another besides a sentence or two, which left me reading this book in sections at a time. My attention couldn't keep up with the back-and-forth and I wanted to know more about each character we only got for a brief segment.
I would have enjoyed learning more about the lives of those librarians so much more than the amount of time we spent learning about the pathological liar of a main suspect. Every section involving Harry Peak left me rolling my eyes and trying not to skim.
The ending was so entirely unsatisfying, which I understand is due to the fact that this is a nonfiction, and people involved the case probably felt the same way. I'm not certain if the point was to feel sympathy for Harry or to learn more about him and make our own judgment? Either way, I found the book to be decent, but not one I would read again.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Library Book is a book full of many different stories. We begin by following the author's explanation of why they feel a personal connection libraries, and then divulge into two paths: different fragments of stories explaining how the Los Angeles Public Library came to be and the story of the main suspect in the 1986 fire involving said library.
The fragmented stories of library history I found incredibly interesting, like bits of a documentary in short episode formats or different informational articles. They were all usually unrelated from one another besides a sentence or two, which left me reading this book in sections at a time. My attention couldn't keep up with the back-and-forth and I wanted to know more about each character we only got for a brief segment.
I would have enjoyed learning more about the lives of those librarians so much more than the amount of time we spent learning about the pathological liar of a main suspect. Every section involving Harry Peak left me rolling my eyes and trying not to skim.
The ending was so entirely unsatisfying, which I understand is due to the fact that this is a nonfiction, and people involved the case probably felt the same way. I'm not certain if the point was to feel sympathy for Harry or to learn more about him and make our own judgment? Either way, I found the book to be decent, but not one I would read again.