The Library Book by Susan Orlean {Book Review}
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Hello Readers,
The Library Book by Susan Orlean was my book club’s Buddy Read Book for May and I enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d write a full review for it as I think some you might find it interesting too.
So as always, let me share the blurb from the back of the book so you know a little more about it before I go into more detail on the book and my thoughts:
“On the morning of 29 April 1986 someone set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying more that 400,000 books. Why did they do this? With her characteristic humour, insight and compassion, Susan Orlean uses this terrible event as a lens through which to tell the story of all libraries - their history, their meaning and their uncertain future as they adapt and redefine themselves in a digital world. Filled with heart, passion and extraordinary characters, The Library Book is a soul-expanding paean and a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution.”
While I think reading non-fiction is important, it’s a good way to learn about history and culture, I’m very picky when it comes to the non-fiction I read. I generally use reading is an escape {it’s why I read a lot of sci-fi} and non-fiction tends to bring me back to earth with a bang, but when I came across this book while browsing through the Waterstones website, I knew I had to pick it up. Firstly, the title caught my attention and then the synopsis hooked me in because, as with many readers, frequent visits to my local library is where my love of books and reading comes from.
While using the fire at the Los Angeles Public Library as a jumping off point, Susan Orlean shares her own story of visiting a library as a child with her mother, saying that the visits “were never long enough” and the way she talks about books really shows that this is someone who is passionate them and the role libraries play in their community ~ this isn’t someone who is just writing about the fire at the Los Angeles Library for the sake of writing about it.
Reading about Orlean’s library visits took me back to my own visits as a child to my local library with my mum and nanna {my mum’s mum}. My nanna adored reading and while my mum took me to the Children’s section to find my next arm full of books, my nanna would be off in the Adult section, finding her own. Sadly, she died when I about 9 years old but her picture sits next to my bookshelves in my office, and I like to think she would have been proud of the ever growing collection of books I have and I’m sure we would have chatted about books a lot if she was still alive. It’s thanks to the visits to the library with my mum and my nanna that I learned to love books and reading.
“Those visits were dreamy, frictionless interludes that promised I would leave richer than I arrived... in the library I could have anything I wanted.”
Throughout The Library Book, while documenting the fire in 1986 and details on the person the authorities think started the fire, Orlean also shares the history of the Los Angeles Public Library and the librarians who ran it. There were some really interesting characters, many of whom where women during a time when society felt women shouldn’t have jobs, only children. It’s these people who made the library into what it is today and the role it plays in the community. You also get to know the librarians working there now and the projects they are working on to help the people most in need in the library’s area ~ for many people libraries are the only place they have access to the internet or shelter from the weather. They’re also the place people can go to get help filling in forms for anything from benefit services to citizenship. Libraries aren’t just places to house books, they are an integral part of their community and Orlean does an excellent job to highlight that fact.
So it’s important that libraries don’t become a thing of the past. There’s a number of ways you can help support your local library, the main one being to simply visit it, if you’re able, and borrow some books. If physically getting to the library isn’t possible, then you may be able to access their digital catalogue and borrow books that way, all you need is a library card, which you should be able to get online. This is what I do via the Borrow Box and Libby apps ~ my library has a good amount of audiobooks available and if I don’t feel able to physically read a book or don’t own a book I want to try, I’ll borrow the audiobook from my library.
Susan Orlean’s writing style is so wonderfully descriptive and really drew me in. This book is one of those that just keeps you turning the page because you want and need to keep reading. I will just say that Orlean goes in a lot of detail about the day of the fire and the fire itself, which is to be expected, but what I hadn’t accounted for was how hard I would find reading about it. I kept looking at my own books and thinking how devastated I would be if that happened to them, so reading how the librarians felt while they watched their books burn was heartbreaking!
So if you’re as attached to books as I am, just be warned, you might find that section a little difficult to read but be assured that when reading about how, what seemed to be all of Los Angeles, come together to salvage what books remained will fill you with joy because the effort and expense to save the books that could be restored to the library was incredible.
“A book feels like a thing alive in this moment, and also alive on a continuum, from the moment the thoughts about it first percolated in the writer’s mind to the moment it sprang off the printing press - a lifeline that continues as someones sits with it and marvels over it, and it continues on, time after time after time. Once words and thoughts are poured into them, books are no longer just paper and ink and glue: They take on a kind of human vitality.”
So overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Library Book and it’s definitely one of my favourites from the 30 plus books I’ve read so far this year. I’d highly recommend picking this one up if you love books, reading, libraries or just simply want to know more about the library system and the history of this particular library in Los Angeles and also the history of Los Angeles itself.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
