The same kind of bewilderment swept over me while reading THE LIBRARY BOOK that I experienced when I watched the play Come From Away and the documentary MAIDEN: how did I not know about this!
Back in April 28, 1986, a fire in the Los Angeles Public Library destroyed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 books. Was the fire an accident…or was it arson? That’s the mystery Susan Orleans investigates in her brilliantly researched THE LIBRARY BOOK. Orleans starts by explaining why most people don’t know about (or remember) the Los Angeles Public Library fire (because an even bigger catastrophe occurred at the same time). Along the way, Orleans presents the history of the Los Angeles Public Library and the quirky people who ran it. My favorite is Mary Foy, the 18-year-old, who was named head of the Library in 1880 at a time when men dominated the library field.
THE LIBRARY BOOK blends history, true crime, a love of reading and books into a compelling chronicle. Highly recommended! How do you use your local public Library? GRADE: A
I read this a few months ago. I don’t remember hearing about the fire at the time. I use my library a lot. Luckily I live within walking distance-two blocks-of my local library. Now that I am older I buy less books. I’m trying to reduce my collection not add to it. Plus my income is less since I’m retired. When I do buy books it’s because none of the libraries within my system have it-like the new Matthew Hughes.
Steve, same here. I’ve always loved libraries (in fact one of my many degrees includes a Master’s of Library Science). Hope you enjoy the new Matthew Hughes!
I was living in L.A. in 1986 and using my local library (I was in the non-trendy part of Hollywood), but I have absolutely no memory whatsoever of the fire. I like to believe I’ve always stayed au courrant with important social/cultural news & events, but obviously some things fall through the gaps. I use my local library mostly now for ebook check-outs. John uses it to get DVDs of shows we can’t find on streaming services (at least the ones we subscribe to). The e-reader is another of those pieces of technology that gradually chip away at brick & mortar structures. Although I use my library frequently, it’s mostly an online thing unless I’m going to a Friends of the Library book sale.
Deb, I keep planning on attending the free Library workshop on downloading ebooks, but something tells me that adding to the over 200 ebooks I already have on my iPad might not be a Good Idea.
George, it’s easy! At least it is easy with the Brooklyn Public Library, so I’m sure yours is too. Like Deb, we are mostly using the library to pick up books we order online, or to download ebooks. I have always loved libraries. When we lived in Queens before we moved to Brooklyn when I was nine, we had a bookmobile that came around once a week. Even then, my thoughts were, “I bet I could read every book in here.” In Brooklyn, we were two blocks from the very large Kings Highway Branch, which had two floors, the upper for children’s books. I remember spending hours just roaming the fiction shelves picking out books at random, something I later did for hours at a time at the main branch at Grand Army Plaza. Every week or so, after I dropped Jackie off at school I would get there by opening time, check the New Books shelves, then scan the Mystery and Fiction shelves.
These days we reserve books online and pick them up at one of our two local branches. Another recent trend is, some books are not available on Kindle but are available on the Cloud Library, so I downloaded that for Jackie and she can read the books (as she is currently with the new Nora Roberts) on her phone. THE LIBRARY BOOK is available in that format.
And no, I don’t remember the library fire from the time either, just from stories years later.
Jeff, I’m tempted by all the ebooks my Library offers. I might be living in the Cloud Library before too long!
I DO remember the big library fire but haven’t got around to this book yet.
Since working at the bookstore, I’ve gotten away from using the library. My visits were limited to meeting with my literacy students there.
I’ll be adding this to my TBR list.
Beth, you’ll find yourself amazed by THE LIBRARY BOOK. And, I hope you enjoy the TRAVEL BOX I sent you!
My county library system is really great. If I had to guess, I’d say that they get 95% of the new books I want to read. I put a reserve on books when they’re ordered so I get them when they’re published. Awaiting pickup right now are the new ones from Stephen King and Reed Farrel Coleman. If I had to buy all the books I get from the library I’d be bankrupt and would have to sleep standing up cause there’d be no room for a bed.
Michael, that’s a great description…of my house! I’m tempted by the new Stephen King novel. The movie rights have already been sold.
I well remember the library fire, it was all over the local news at the time. Such a tragedy. They were campaigning for book donations at the time, I gave three boxes of fiction and non-fiction hardcovers. I drove them to the closest LA Co. library branch, which I think was in Whittier.
The library system in Southern California in Orange County was not very good, but the system here in Oregon is great. The County I’m in, Multnomah, and the two adjoining counties, Clark and Washington, all allow Portland residents to get cards, so I have three counties to search for what I want. One of the other usually has it.
Rick, we have a great inter-library loan program here, too. It’s rare that I can’t get any book I want. And, if I can’t, I do what Steve does: I buy it.
Mine isn’t inter-library loan, although we have that available. We simply can go to any library branch in any of the three counties to check out books.
I have to admit that I’ve never been to a library since 1970 when I started to work – and also started to buy more books than I could ever read. 🙂
Before that as a pupil I was a regular visitor to our small town library and as a student the America House with its nice library (and US newspapers like the NYT as well as technical magazines) was on my way – first from the railway station to the university and later between my rented room and the Maths institute …
Later however I sometimes exchanged interesting books with my friends who had very divergent interests …
Wolf, your comment about the America House reminds me that when I worked in Greenwich Village, my co-worker often spent time at the Goethe House, still near Union Square.
Wolf, most of the American Libraries I’ve visited in the past couple of years are full of computers and DVD/Blu-ray Discs. The books seem secondary these days.
Orlean’s book is very good and I think the people who learned about it and the fire here would enjoy it. I use our libraries here in Winnipeg all the time and have two books and a DVD on hold that I plan to pick up today. Most of the time I request them online and pick them up at my local branch that is about two minutes from my home. Our main branch downtown is excellent and I used to visit it at least once a week., but that changed after I stopped working downtown. A few months ago a security system was introduced there where every visitor has to be scanned like they are in an airport. The number of people using the main library has dropped off and this week a group wanting the security system removed held a protest at city hall.
Kent, I’ve visited a few libraries in Canada and have been impressed by what I saw. I also bought some wonderful mysteries at the public library in Niagara-on-the-Lake.