The library book, by Susan Orlean

A love letter to public libraries. The red and gold book cover, resembling one of the fancier types of rebinding popular in the 1960s; the faux book pocket and date due card; and the Dewey Decimal headings at the beginning of each chapter are very clever.  The main topic of the book is the serious fire at the headquarters of the Los Angeles library system on April 28, 1986.  Why, I wondered, was I not familiar with this major library event that raged for seven hours, destroyed 400,000 books and damaged another 700,000, and did extreme damage to the historic building?  Well, the fire shares this date with the Chernobyl disaster, when the world waited to see just how widespread this nuclear catastrophe would become.  Orlean charts the growth of the city of Los Angeles, the development of its library system, the building of its unique main library, and introduces all of the directors who have guided it with greater or lesser effectiveness.  She explores the biography of Harry Peak, a gay pathological liar, wannabe actor, and troubled soul, who may or may not have set the fire intentionally that day. We learn about the "science" of arson investigation.  She ropes in library history, the changing place of libraries in their communities, and the advance of technology, including a long chapter about OverDrive which seemed rather extraneous,  She's obviously a big fan of public libraries.  Perhaps I just know too much about libraries, but I found the book a bit of a slog.  Our oddball patrons are just as weird, if not weirder, than any that hang out in LA.  Maybe a bit less West-Coast-colorful overall, but just as strange.  However, readers who are patrons of libraries, not librarians, will find much interesting information here.  Makes our profession and those that practice it look very good – but we knew that!  313 pp.