THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean

[thisnewday]

At around 11 AM on April 29,1986, the Los Angeles Central Library caught fire. It burned for nearly 8 hours and 400,000 books were destroyed, with 700,000 more damaged by smoke or water or both.

By the time news of the fire reached the East Coast, it was too late for that day's edition of the New York Times. The following day, the magnitude of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which had also happened on the 29th, was beginning to be understood and would dominate headlines, world-wide, for the rest of the week.

It was several decades later, when writer Susan Orlean and her family moved to Los Angeles--and her son was to interview a city librarian for a school project, that she became aware of this story and wrote her book.

And it was yesterday, at the October meeting of our book club, that I discovered it--because it's our club selection for next month.

At the moment, I'm only a few pages into it but already anticipate that it will be one of those which I'll only put down to attend to the necessities of life. You know, the stuff that's not automatic, the way breathing mostly is.

I'm not gonna be blazing through it, if you'll excuse the expression, but intend to savor the power and ride the momentum of Orlean's words as she rolls out her narrative like the boundless horizons of the city she's writing about.

At the moment, I've no idea where those horizons may ultimately lie, but I'm totally willing to follow her to them...

LPK
Dreamwidth
10.25.2019

Comments

[rosegardenfae]

I need a book like that, can't find anything in all these stacks that offers me that sort of intensity.

[thisnewday]

Well, the book is kind of like the fire she's writing about, it varies in intensity. But I think that's her plan for it, based on an interview that I read. But definitely a worthwhile read, in my opinion...

[rosegardenfae]

Well, I ordered it. My current read is really dragging. I'm beginning to wonder if I can even come close to finishing my current stack, but it is fun to try. It is my only addiction, might as well feed it lol

[thisnewday]

Ah, so glad you're getting it. Ironically, as well as appropriately enough, it's one of the first books that I've signed out through our book club at the library--rather than purchasing it for my own.

And it turns out to be one of those books that, while it didn't exactly set me on fire, I felt continuously engaged and would have felt it a more worthy addition to my collection than some of the "burners" I've sped through and then shelved, never to be thought of again...

[rosegardenfae]

I started reading "A Gentleman in Moscow" this morning and am already intrigued. So first I will complete it and then I'm moving "The Library Book" to top of the stack.

[thisnewday]

Yeah, it's definitely a great story! And with your background with the Romanov's you'll bring a sense of the history and culture to your reading of it that I didn't have.

I've actually just finished Orlean's book and liked that one too. Intriguing, disturbing, touching, she brings so many things to the story from her years of writing for "The New Yorker."

Not sure where I'm gonna go next with my reading, but pretty sure I'll figure it out, lol...

[rosegardenfae]

It is the most challenging time for me when I finish a good book to move on to the next one. I hate to leave behind the story in which I had been living.

[thisnewday]

Yeah, I feel that way too--when it's a book that I feel invested-in emotionally.

Weird thing is, you mentioned finishing "A Gentleman in Moscow" and what you were gonna read next and I thought, hey, I should mention Towles' previous book, "The Rules of Civility," which I'd also recently enjoyed.

So I pulled it (carefully, lol) out of the pile, looked at the inside cover notes, and realized I didn't remember a damn thing about it. So I decided to make it my "next" book.

Which could be one of the benefits of losing your mind--you don't have to buy as many books to always have a "fresh" read in front of you, lol...

[rosegardenfae]

Well, I suddenly feel great relief at knowing I am not alone in losing a book as soon as I've finished it. Current pychobabble touts being in the moment as beneficial. Age has forced me to do just that.

[thisnewday]

Well said, E. I guess it's the "forced" part that kind of pisses me off occasionally.

I found similar relief in a conversation I had with a guy at the community center the other day--that one concerned a growing phobia about the tunnels used for CT scans, etc. He had an attitude, similar to ours, I think, about the medical people and others who say, "If you don't do this or that, you're gonna die."

He said, to the effect of, "Well, I'm gonna die anyway, but it's not gonna be in your goddamn tunnel," lol...

[rosegardenfae]

Well yeah, I'm certain neither of us does well with being forced into anything. Those counterculture axioms are indelible.

Oh god, I love that guy's attitude. Right on!!

Youngest daughter tells me if I feel like it's time, head for the woods down by the pond and just lie down.