You can almost think of Orlean’s account as In Cold Blood.except with books! When all was said and done, 400,000 books were completely destroyed, 700,000 books were partially damaged, and the police had exactly zero suspects.Įnter: one Harry Peak, underemployed actor, and master storyteller, said by many (but not all) to be at the library that morning, and who subsequently became the focus of the criminal investigation, and later, Susan Orlean’s book. Specifically, The Library Book details the events of April 29th, 1986, when a massive fire devastated the Los Angeles Public Library, at one point reaching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (more than five times the temperature at which paper burns) and lasting for more than 7 hours. Oh, yea? Then read this! It’s excellent! It’s about libraries! And fires! And books! And librarians! And literature! And life! Of course, I knew I’d like it - I mean, it’s about books - but I had no idea that I wouldn’t want it to end, that I would angrily confront anyone who tried to get me to put it down, and that I would push it into the hands of dozens of people after I read it, from close family members to strangers who mentioned in passing that, yea, I kinda like books too. I’m sitting at an airport bar in Toronto, about to dive into The Library Book, by Susan Orlean, which I just picked up in the airport bookstore about twenty minutes before.
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