I remember when I first heard there was a place where one could borrow all the books one wanted to read.

My elementary school, Philip Sheridan, was brand new and filled with recently published children's books. There was a small library in my second-grade classroom and after the teacher read a book out loud to the class I would borrow it and read the book myself. Then I started to pick up other books, like the biography of Robert Louis Stevenson which I read over and over. I knew his book of children's poetry A Child's Garden of Verses--now I knew there was a man behind the words.

When the teacher said there was a whole building of books called a library I went home and asked my mother if she would take me to the library.

She said I was too young and a year passed before we walked down the road to the Sheridan Parkside Library and I got my first library card. It was so hard to choose my three books! I borrowed Follow My Leader, which our teacher had read to the class, a history of Australia because I had an Australian pen pal, and D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths.

Wherever we moved, I continued to frequent libraries. And when our son was born, I would put him in the stroller and walk to the local library. As a preschooler, he would borrow 15 books a week. As a high schooler, he volunteered at the library resale bookstore. I joined book clubs at the local library wherever we moved. I made friends with librarians at the smaller libraries and the staff would know us. But I had never given much thought about everything that goes on to make a library run.

I had enjoyed Susan Orlean's book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend and that motivated me to want to read The Library Book. As I read it I found myself thinking about the many libraries in my life, appreciating them more and more.

Orlean begins with stories of libraries in her life growing up and how she wanted her son to have the same experience. Going to the Los Angeles Central Library, one of the most beautiful buildings she had ever seen, she learned about the April 29, 1986 fire that destroyed a million books.

Why don't we remember this event? Chernobyl took over the news that week.

Orlean's book is a history of the Los Angeles Central Library, the investigation into the fire, the extraordinary work to save the books, and an exploration into the role of libraries in society today.

When investigators can't determine the cause of a fire it is considered arson, and then comes the search for the person who started the fire. The case centered on Harry Peak, a fabulist with a deep need for attention.

We meet the memorable people who make the library run and see how the library functions in today's society as a democratic, open, public space. The LA library has developed outreach programs to the homeless and unemployed and offers a safe place for teenagers.

Libraries everywhere are changing to meet the needs of its community. Digital books audiobooks are available to download to electronic devices. In our small suburban city full of young families the library has intergenerational coloring days, reading to pets, speakers and concerts, Lego days, movies, card making, scrapbooking, magic shows, and of course book clubs and summer reading programs.

I enjoyed the book as history and for its insights into an institution sometimes considered outdated, but which the Millennial generation has embraced. Most of all, I am grateful that Orlean has made me better appreciate librarians and library staff for their contributions.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Mystery, subtle humor, book burning, history, quirky characters, amazing writing: The Library Book by Susan Orlean is a joy and a treasure for bibliophiles or readers of any ilk.
Orleans combines an enormous amount of captivating details about books, libraries, destruction and burning, growth and rebirth the into this well organized account focusing on the Los Angeles Central Library and the devastating arson fire of 1986. The details are absorbing, never cumbersome. The first Los Angeles library opened in 1973. “Membership was five dollars a year. At the time, five dollars represented several day’s pay for an average worker, so only affluent people were able to join. Library rules were schoolmarmish and scoldy.” Men had to remove their hats. Patrons were discouraged from reading too much fiction. Women could not use the main facilities, but had a “Ladies Room” with magazines. Children were not allowed in the library. This was only 83 years before I was born. I’m so astounded I did the calculations twice. I take so much for granted regarding the privilege of libraries and reading.
It is clear that Orleans loves books and libraries and has a personal relationship with them. “a library is an intricate machine, a contraption of whirring gears,… it is as much a portal as it is a place – a transit point, a passage.” She speaks of soothing library noise – “not a din, not a racket, just a constant, warm, shapeless sound – space inhabited peacefully and purposefully by many strangers.”
Her library memories reminded me of biking to the school library in the summer, back in the days when kids had more freedom and my bike had one gear. Our school library didn’t have much ‘modern stuff’ in its 100 year old building, so I grew up with Oliver Twist and Tom Sawyer, the March sisters, and Call of the Wild, imagining worlds far different than my protected suburbia.
Chapter 9, on book burning, both fascinated and grieved me. The first recorded instance of book burning was in 213 BC in China. “War is the greatest slayer of libraries…..The Nazis alone destroyed an estimated hundred million books during their twelve years in power….In Poland, eighty percent of all books in the country were destroyed. In Kiev, German solders paved the streets with reference books from the city’s library to provide footing for their armored vehicles in the mud….By the end of the war, more than one third of all the books in Germany were gone.”
Orleans observes, “Burning books is an inefficient way to conduct a war, since books and libraries have no military value, but it is a devastating act. Destroying a library is a kind of terrorism. People think of libraries as the safest and most open places in society…All the wonder and failures, all the campions and villains, all the legends and ideas and revelations of a culture last forever in its books.”
The Library Book is also subtle humor and women’s history. Mary Foy, an early L.A. librarian “pursued overdue fines with a vengeance, depositing them in a leather purse she wore slung across her chest like a bandolier.” The library board voted to remove her when they reasoned her father was doing well enough financially to take care of her.
Charles Lummis, a colorful Los Angeles librarian, had “talent for poetry, but his greater talent was for self-promotion.” Orleans tells of Mary Jones, whom Lummis replaced because the board thought a man better suited to the Job. A thousand women marched to support Mary, the mayor fired the library board, they refused to be fired… You’ll just have to read the book to find out more.
In an age of computers and declining readership, it is heartening to know that libraries are evolving, reaching out in ways beyond books. In times of trouble, libraries are sanctuaries. They become community centers and blood draw locations, tutoring dens, and reading Edens. “All things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise; Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story.”
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for granting access to an arc of this book for an honest review.

As a future librarian this book was off the charts for me! I related to and loved so much of "The Library Book." Susan Orlean (bestselling author of "Rin Tin Tin" and "The Orchid Thief") retells the true story of a massive fire at the Central Branch Library in L.A. in 1986. During the writing of this books she spent an immense amount of time in the L.A. library system and interviewed and shadowed current and former librarians and staff. Besides detailing the horrendous fire: 400,000 books were destroyed, an additional 700,000 had smoke and water damage, as well as losing decades of census records, historic maps, and one of the first translations of the Bible, “it was the greatest loss to any public library in the history of the United States.”

Besides documenting the library fire and the subsequent arson investigation, Orlean details the history of the first library in Los Angeles, the early librarians, and the construction of the Central Branch by architect Bertram Goodhue. She weaves the stories of the patrons, librarians, staff, firefighters, into this heartfelt book. I highly recommend this to book to all library users, librarians, and bibliophiles.

"The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them."

"A book feels like a thing alive in this moment, and also alive on a continuum..."

"The library is an easy place to be when you have no place you need to go and a desire to be invisible."

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.

"… being a librarian is an opportunity to be a social activist championing free speech and immigrant rights and homelessness concerns while working within the Dewey Decimal System."

"Public libraries in the United States outnumber McDonald’s; they outnumber retail bookstores two to one."

I'm not sure there was truly a satisfactory amount material here for a book, but there's enough good content to make this worth checking out (library pun intended!) anyway.

The fire and subsequent arson trial at the center of the story are interesting and Orlean narrates them well. Though it's frustratingly inconclusive in the end, that's not the fault of the author. However, that did make me wish I got more out of the other components of the book than I did.

I could have done completely without the Rah Rah Libraries! chapters. While I'd be the first to agree that books and libraries are an exceptional and important community resource, I highly doubt there's anyone seeking out a book like this who doesn't know that, and the information isn't new or compelling enough to keep the reader interested anyway.

The historical chapters were kind of a mixed bag. The general history of libraries was excellent. The history of the Los Angeles libraries was up and down. Some phases and components of it were fascinating, others dragged badly and prompted me to start skimming.

Though this was a relatively quick read, it definitely could have benefitted from being edited down significantly. There's a lot here that I could have done without. That said, there's enough good content here to make the book worth a read.

I very much enjoyed reading this book about the Los Angeles Public Library system. I learned so much that I never knew before. I did think I would get more resolve regarding the fire and the mystery behind it but that isn't always the case with real life events. I would recommend this book to all librarians and library lovers, I am just not sure that my patrons would enjoy this book only because I don't think they have a vested interest in the city of LA.

On April 29, 1986 the Central Los Angeles Public Library burned, destroying over 400,000 items from their collection. The building burned for more than 7 hours and reached temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees. Built to house 1,000,000 items, in 1986 the library was stuffed with more than 2,000,000, and over half were damaged or destroyed by the flames and the water used to fight the fire. Yet it barely made the national news because the largest library fire in American history was upstaged by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown.
The next morning over 2000 volunteers boxed and moved waterlogged books into borrowed commercial freezers to prevent mold spores from growing. It took 3 days, round-the-clock to empty the building.

Almost immediately the fire was blamed on arson and a composite drawing showed a possible suspect to be a tall, blue-eyed, blond haired man who had been spotted in the library about the time of the first fire alarm. His name: Harry Peak and he was 27.

With this telling Susan Orleans has given readers a tribute to books and libraries and a fascinating account of the larger than life characters, vibrant history and the true crime that rocked the Los Angeles library. I know that many IGers frequent their local libraries so show this book some love. It’s a pretty fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the care and feeding of one of our favorite institutions. And no, Amazon cannot replace libraries!l

Although the Los Angeles Library fire is an interesting framework, this book is about so much more. I learned about the history of the LA library, and libraries in general, as well as how they have evolved to fit different times. I had no idea that libraries did so much community outreach - although I should have realized it, because our city library is amazing. This also brought back some very happy memories of my many childhood trips to the library.

The book is extremely accessible and not dry - I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys or enjoyed going to their public library.

Susan Orlean is an exceptional writer and her love for the written word and libraries is all over this work.

As she digs into the fire at the LAPL, this becomes a book about libraries and the people who inhabit them. The librarians and all of the ins and outs and backrooms and quirky people who make up the library. What she finds is something that we all have found at one time or another, a second home. A place of community, a place that levels the playing field for those who don't have the luxury of buying a lot of books or resource material. 

I often joke I would love to be locked in a library and after reading Susan's book, I really want to do that! I associate the library with my childhood, my first library card, the smell, all the adventures I took in those books.

Librarians are really lucky!

I loved this book and I hope you do as well.

Netgalley/ Simon and Schuster October 16, 2018

I wasn't able to get through this book -- not through any fault of the author's -- the subject just didn't capture me as I thought it might. However, it is well written and thoroughly researched, so I'm giving it four stars. It simply wasn't my cup of tea.

Another great read and information from Susan Orlean. She describes in depth not only a fire which pretty much decimated the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986, but details the library's history, its key players, and the years long search for the alleged arsonist. Following her own story of how she became a devoted reader, Orlean launches into the story of the LA library conflagration. She has seemingly thought of everything to include in this supremely riveting nonfiction read. One doesn't need to be a librarian to be engaged with this narrative; only someone who appreciates the written word and how important it Is to our personal well-being and that of the community it serves.

I didn’t want this book to end. Like the author, I grew up going to the library with my mother. We lived rurally so I looked forward to going to town, returning our books and checking out new ones. At that time there was a two-book limit! As a young and broke military wife, our Friday night “date” was the library.

Orlean has written a history of Los Angeles Public Library from the beginning, through the devastating fire in 1986 and it’s phoenix rise from the ashes six years later, remodeled and with a new wing. We meet many of the staff and directors over the span of its 100-year history. She says it’s simply “a storehouse of books,” but going deeper, she reminds us that books are an expression of culture, that books are a sort of culture DNA, the code for who, as a society, we are, and what we know. President Roosevelt gave the keynote at the American Library Association’s convention in 1942. “Books cannot be killed by fire,” he declared. “People die, but books never die.” No bibliophile needs convincing of this. She concludes with, why she wrote this book, “to tell about a place I love that doesn’t belong to me but feels like it is mine, and how that feels like a marvelous and exceptional thing.” Ray Bradbury wrote, “The library was my nesting place, my birthing place, it was my growing place.” This is a library/book-lover’s book.

The Library Book combines a thorough journalistic investigation with non-fictional storytelling. Orlean has a gift for detail, and her writing elates fascination. This book is one of the most unexpected page-turners I've ever read, genre and theme wise. With the LA public library great fire of 1986 as focus, Orlean takes us on a journey across time, connecting the fatal events of that day with the long history of the library and its significance as a place of refuge, physical and emotional, for the community. The author brings to life those who have made, and continue making, the library that space, threading anecdotes with biography and painting a colourful, nuanced and fascinating painting

As a complete book junkie, I LOVED this book. The history of the LA library was the glue that held this look at the state of the current library system together seamlessly. Interesting history...interesting look at the writer's love of books...interesting back stories of the employees of the library. Highly entertaining non-fiction. Not only for serious book lovers, but for readers interested in some great storytelling and history.

Susan Orlean writes so beautifully that I could get into any topic she cares to treat with a book. When I saw she was writing about libraries, I had high expectations. "The Library Book" managed to live up to all of them. It's part mystery (what caused a huge fire at the Los Angeles public library in April 1986?), part history (of Los Angeles as well as its library) and part romance (between Orlean and books, between all of us and libraries). Despite a huge cast of characters and 150-plus years of historical detail, the book never drags.

I enjoyed the parts if this title about the fire and rebuilding. The history of the library seemed a bit slow, although it provided significant background for the story.

A fascinating study of both the cultural meaning and value of the library as a concept, and the real work and many diverse purposes served by libraries today, through the lens of an act of library arson(?). Orlean manages to capture the pleasure of the library hardwired from childhood visits, of the release of memory as an adult that triggers the same in me as a reader.

Most fraught, and most effective, is her account of burning a book in an experiment - her recounting of this moment has a surprisingly transgressive charge, making the reader suddenly aware of how deep the cultural taboo goes, even in an age of disposable entertainment and devaluation of libraries. It's extremely effective in helping the reader viscerally understand the loss, both real and emotional, of a library's worth of books, of the sheer enormity of such an act of arson, while also revealing the extent to which this impact is culturally programmed.

I was only 6 years old when the Los Angeles library burned (and obviously preferred cartoons over the news) but I'm still surprised that this book is the first I heard of it. Being a lifelong avid reader and lover of all things bookish, libraries hold a special place in my heart. The story of the actual burning of the library was fascinating. I never knew fire was so complex. I had to pause several times in my reading to google the library, the events surrounding the fire, and facts about fire itself.

The author also covers the history of the Los Angeles library in great detail. I would have probably enjoyed the history better if it were separate from the story of the fire but the way it was included sporadically throughout the narrative disrupted the flow of the story about the events surrounding the fire.

What I learned from “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean?

A lot! My brain is nearly combusting from all the information about Los Angeles, libraries in America, librarians, history of the Los Angeles library, architecture of the Los Angeles library, people working at the Los Angeles library, the famous fire that nearly consumed the Los Angeles library, arson in general, search for the arsonist after the fire at the Los Angeles library, the renovation of the Los Angeles library, love of books in general, love of libraries in general and so much more.

Susan Orlean is a talented writer and she could write a telephone book in a way that would make it readable. Her love of libraries and books is touching, as well as her adoration for librarians. The research she had to undertook to write this book is breathtaking. I am in awe of her devotion and writing skills. At the same time I don’t think this book will appeal to wide audience. It is really only for devoted book enthusiasts and people fascinated by libraries. I love reading and history, but still some information in this book seemed trivial and unnecessary.

The history of the Los Angeles library is worth telling, but apart from the fire that nearly destroyed the building and the criminal investigation that followed there is not much compelling information to tell about it. The case of arson was never definitely closed, so what really happened and if there was an arsonist responsible for the fire – remains a mystery. The author recalls all the known facts, so it is possible for every reader to judge them and come to his own conclusions. I think there is too much information in the book about running libraries nowadays and people who work there. It is nice that the author talked to them and wrote about them in a book, but it wasn’t very interesting.

Overall, "The Library Book" is like a love song to libraries and books. I enjoyed reading it, even if I found some parts of it redundant.

I received "The Library Book" from the publisher via NetGalley. I would like to thank the author and the publisher for providing me with the advance reader copy of the book.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!

As a lover of libraries, I wish I could have given this book a five. The book does provide some interesting information about the Los Angeles Public Library. However, the book misses some of the reasons that people love libraries and seems to follow a formula common in modern nonfiction.

The strengths of the books is that it provides a history of the Los Angles library and the people involved in running this institution. The book provides some interesting facts about the physical structure of the building. I found parts about the arson much more informative than I thought I would.

However, the book seems to follow a modern formula. I have reviewed several nonfiction books that seem to follow this formula. The book is basically a history/sociology book. However, the book is marketed as part "mystery" which I feel is done to make it sell. The author puts some information in about themselves and their motivations for writing the book in the main part of the book where I feel it is irrelevant.

Ms. Orlean says she wrote this book in part as a tribute to her mother who loved libraries. While this is a noble to write a book of about libraries, I feel this information belongs in the preface and acknowledgements of the book not in the main section.

Furthermore, Ms. Orlean states that she herself is not a big user of the library. She prefers to buy her own books. Therefore she herself is not an example of a libriayphile. She needed to found more library enthusiasts for her book. The book does not answer the question of why people made this major effort to save the library after the fire.

Some of my problems of the book may have to do with the Los Angeles public library. I was sad to see how much the homeless dominate the Los Angeles library. I think the Boston Public Library and some of the suburban libraries around Boston have tried to keep liberties to their original purpose; for people to do research and take out books. I am not saying that we should not help the homeless but rather that the public libraries should be for ALL not just the homeless.

Furthermore I like hanging out at the library. One aspect of libraries that I like is that they are one of the few remaining institutions in the United States that both the very poor and uneducated and the upper class use. Students and people who use libraries a lot will still like the fact that you can take out books for free. If you read a lot (more than a book a week) the cost of books can be prohibitive. Also if you live in a small place what is one supposed to do with all the books one’s read? I am a traditionalist in regards to libraries. I believe their primary purpose will continue to be as a place that people can both do research and take out books.

Thus, while the Library Book provided some interested history on the Los Angeles Public library, I felt it missed some of what makes libraries both well-loved and enduring institution.

I received a few copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.