The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Narrator: Susan Orlean
Pages: 13
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date October 16, 2018
Goodreads
On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand 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 reflection that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.
In the 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; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks 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.
Goodreads Updates
Susan Orlean’s voice droned though out the book, and I almost felt as if she was bored and just going through the motions. I did speed up the pace on my audiobook which did help, but I still felt like I was being read a book by my high school English teacher.
Yes, yes I did hear that right and I almost turned the book off then and there. Considering the author claims to love libraries, the thought of burning a book, just to see what it feels like sounds insane. Ironicly, the chosen book was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I have to wonder if she literary saw the irony or if this was “like rain on your wedding day.”
What the novel detailed about the LAPL fire could have fit into a short story. The majority of The Library Book was on the author’s love for libraries or educating us on the Dewey Decimal System. Instead of being informative it came off as if I were reading someone’s dissertation and was as dry as paper after a fire.
I feel repetitive, but The Library Book was more like a string of thoughts with what Susan Orlean felt we should be educated on. Occasionally she would remember what the book was suppose to be about and throw the reader a bone with an antidote about Harry Peak, the supposed arsonist.
Sadly, I know just as much about the Los Angeles Public Library and Harry Peak as I did going into the book — which is pretty much nothing. The Library Book was more of a ramble instead of the promised true crime on the library fire. Overall, it was a disappointing listen and is twelve hours I’ll never get back.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Leave a Reply