Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the author of seven books, including Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in upstate New York and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and Twitter.com/SusanOrlean.
On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?
Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.
In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.
Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and present—from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old was named the head of the Los Angeles Public Library at a time when men still dominated the role, to Dr. C.J.K. Jones, a pastor, citrus farmer, and polymath known as “The Human Encyclopedia” who roamed the library dispensing information; from Charles Lummis, a wildly eccentric journalist and adventurer who was determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the current staff, who do heroic work every day to ensure that their institution remains a vital part of the city it serves.
Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist’s reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever.
"What can you do to actually merge into and feel belonged to a city?"is a popular hashtag for a Chinese community. This new nation of migrants from rural to urban, farm to cities, are craving for shortcuts to find home and belonging in new landscape. Out of...
评分"What can you do to actually merge into and feel belonged to a city?"is a popular hashtag for a Chinese community. This new nation of migrants from rural to urban, farm to cities, are craving for shortcuts to find home and belonging in new landscape. Out of...
评分"What can you do to actually merge into and feel belonged to a city?"is a popular hashtag for a Chinese community. This new nation of migrants from rural to urban, farm to cities, are craving for shortcuts to find home and belonging in new landscape. Out of...
评分1986年4月29号,一场燃烧了七个半小时的熊熊烈火,烧毁/损坏了洛杉矶中央图书馆一半的藏书,超过一百万册。堪称美国历史上最严重、损失最惨重的一次图书馆大火。这次失火后中央图书馆关张整整六年。几十万册被火烧烟熏水浸过的图书(其中包括多个全国最大的collection)被紧急...
评分"What can you do to actually merge into and feel belonged to a city?"is a popular hashtag for a Chinese community. This new nation of migrants from rural to urban, farm to cities, are craving for shortcuts to find home and belonging in new landscape. Out of...
3.5/5 喜欢:文笔好美,有作者自己对图书馆的爱。展现了一个多元化的图书馆--不只是一个看书的地方,而是一个community center。它可以是一个day care,可以给homeless提供庇护,可以是移民练习英语的地方,可以给人再教育的机会。它是一个书籍的殿堂,但是他比一个书籍的殿堂要多得多。不喜欢的地方:作者的抒情有点多,中间穿插播续有点乱,让人容易失去内容方向和读他的drive。不好不坏:整体的主旨是一致的当时内容上是偏散的。当作小说读缺少那种一气呵成的感觉,当作几篇散文读的话就挺好的。
评分终于拜读了这本长期挂在公共图书馆overdrive首页上关于公共图书馆的书,北美图书馆除了借书以外还有社区中心的功能:上网,写论文,学习小组,meetup,培训各种技能(我曾在一个branch被迫旁听了一个半小时的excel课程,全因地方小而教师嗓音穿透力强可能是业余歌剧演员),收留无家可归的人(周末早上图书馆一开门一群人带着全身家当冲进去了)。书里用的叙述方式就十分cheesy了,开头先来个纵火案镇场子,然后开始倒叙插叙着讲图书馆的发展史,mission&vision啊。我并非觉得这没意思,只是这样挑拨读者情绪太过于cheap了。最后,Vivre la bibliothèque!
评分一个伟大的公共机构:图书馆的历史。Orlean这本关于洛杉矶公共图书馆的书充满了各种奇妙的人物,对于世界、知识和人的想法和热爱。写的真流畅,看了停不下来。
评分fun facts
评分Susan Orlean写给图书馆的一本情书。图书馆就是个小社会,天下之人无奇不有。 “It wasn't that time stopped in the library. It was as if it were captured, collected here, and in all libraries -- and not only my time, my life, but all human time as well. In the library, time is dammed up--not just stopped but saved.”
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