“The Library Book” by Susan Orlean

A few years ago I was sitting around a table with my then boyfriend Jeff’s family playing a party card game. The question posed in front of the group was “name your favorite possession.” As the question made its way around the table to me, I thought hard about what my answer would be. Some people said their wedding ring and other people said a favorite car, or a keepsake from their mother. When it was my turn I said “my library card,” and this is the most honest answer I could think of. Jeff’s dad smiled because his mom was a librarian. I work my library card to the bone, checking out hundreds of books and audio books each year. Where else can you walk into a building and walk out with ten things for free? It also offers me the laissezfaire attitude that if I don’t like a book I can simply return it, without penalty or judgment. Susan Orlean’s bestseller “The Library Book,” is a tribute to the American library system and a horrible fire that threatened one of its best. Orlean began with a premise: What were the details of the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire, and was it arson? The library fire burned more than 400,000 books, and more than a million other books were damaged. Some librarians say that if you go into the library today, some of the older books still smell like smoke. Orlean’s book investigates the details of the fire, and probes the legendary theory that a drifter/actor named Harry Peak was the arsonist. She also dissects the underbelly of the library system, and the people who work within their walls. Certain people are library people, and others are not. I can still remember the Dewey Decimal card catalogue system used to classify books at my childhood library in Studio City on Moorpark. I am one of the biggest library fans around, and if you are too you will enjoy this book. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.