I
saw no fewer than three major stories or reviews in just a few short days about
a book that sounded like a welcome edition to anyone who collects books about
books. So I grabbed a copy of The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Simon
& Schuster).
The
book’s about a fire that devastated the Los Angeles Public Library, destroying
400,000 books and damaging another 700,000.
More than three decades since the arson-induced fire engulfed a
treasure, the 1986 fire remains a mystery. Orlean’s book serves as a tribute to librarians,
libraries, and books, with her thorough, heartfelt exploration.
The Washington Post calls it a
“dazzling love letter to a beloved institution.” Indeed, her book is a welcome addition to
anyone’s library. Orlean, whose earlier
book won an Academy Award as a movie, uses wit, insight and compassion to show
us how beloved institutions like libraries provide us not just access to books,
but a home to a neighborhood’s soul.
The
book says this of itself: “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 to a metropolitan
charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national
identity, and brings each department of the library to vivid life.”
Just
read this part of a paragraph that she wrote to describe her childhood moments
spent at a suburban Cleveland library, Shaker Heights Public Library: “Our visits to the library were never long
enough for me. The place was so
beautiful. I loved wandering around the
bookshelves, scanning the spines until something happened to catch my eye. Those visits were dreamy, frictionless
interludes that promised I could leave richer than I arrived.”
I
was around 19 when the LAPL fire occurred, but I don’t recall reading anything
about it at the time – or since. Orlean
classifies this as “the biggest library fire in American history.” Maybe her book will shed light on why the
fire went virtually ignored by mass media.
The
fire took over seven and a half hours to be extinguished, required the majority
of LA’s firefighting personnel to battle it.
Amazingly, the building stayed hot for five days, with temperatures
lingering close to 100 degrees. Water
damage, smoke damage, and burned debris threatened both fire fighters and the
buildings integrity. Fifth thousand
boxes of books got packed up by volunteers seeking to salvage the remains.
In
Orlean’s well-researched book, readers learn there are about 200 library fires
every year in the United States, though many are minor and usually caused by
accidents from overheated fans, short circuits, and lightning strikes. But some are caused as the result of casual
vandalism. Ironically, the number of fires
in libraries has increased since smoking was banned from them.
Even
though libraries seem like the pillar or backbone of a community, you have to
realize how vulnerable they are to suffering damage from weather, vandalism,
arson, accident or theft. They are not
well guarded nor are libraries always given the latest equipment. Some libraries are in disrepair or falling victim
to an aging infrastructure.
Libraries,
not so long ago “had become an essential feature of the American landscape, a
civic junction, a station in ordinary life.
Everyone traveled through the
library.”
Today,
the library continues to be a stable environment for the world. Olean estimates there are 320,000 public
libraries servicing hundreds of millions of people each year, worldwide, from
vending machine libraries in Beijing to Bangkok’s Library Train for Young People
to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Here are some selected excerpts from the book:
Library
Defined
It
seems simple to define what a library is – namely, it is a storeroom of
books. But the more time I spent at Central,
the more I realized that a library is an intricate machine, a contraption of
whirring gears. There were days when I
came to the library and planted myself near the center of the main corridor and
simply watched the whirl and throb of the place. Sometimes people ambled by with no apparent
destination. Some people marched
crisply, full of purpose. Many were
alone, some were in pairs; occasionally, they traveled in a gaggle. People think that libraries are quiet, but
they really aren’t. they rumble with
voices and footsteps and a whole orchestral range of book-related noises – the
snap of covers clapping shut; the breathy whisk of pages fanning open; the
distinctive thunk of one book being stacked on another; the grumble of book
carts in the corridors.
Lost
Libraries
You
could fill a book with the list of lost libraries of the world, and in fact,
there have been many books written about them, including one with the haunting
title Libricide, written by a
professor of library science. Early in
history, when there were fewer books, and printing copies was expensive and
time-consuming, the loss of a library could be terminal. UNESCO released studies in 1949 and in the
1996 listing all the libraries that have been demolished throughout modern
history. The number of books destroyed,
by UNESCO’s count, is so enormous –in the billions---that I sometimes find it
hard to believe there are any books left in the world.
World
War II
The
grinding destruction of the war crushed the libraries of Europe. Some were merely unlucky and got caught in
fire bombings and aerial attacks meant for more strategic targets. But the German army singled out books for
destruction. Special book-burning squads known as “Brenn-Kommandos” were sent
out to burn libraries and synagogues.
The squads were effective.
Enumerating the losses of libraries in the war, both incidental and
purposeful is dizzying. Twenty major
libraries containing two million books were destroyed in Italy. France lost millions more, including 300,000
in Strasbourg, 42,000 in Beauvais, 23,000 in Chartres, and 110,000 in
Douai. The Library of the National
Assembly in Paris burned down, taking with it countless historic arts and
science books. In Metz, officials hid the library’s most valuable books in an
unmarked warehouse for safekeeping. A
German soldier found the warehouse and threw an incendiary device into it. Most of the books, including rare eleventh
and thirteenth-century manuscripts, were destroyed.
Burning
Books
Burning
books is an inefficient way to conduct a war, since books and libraries have no
military value, but it is a devastating act.
Destroying a library is a kind of terrorism. People think of libraries as the safest and
most open places in society. Setting
them on fire is like announcing that nothing, and nowhere, is safe.
The
Depression
Libraries
were a solace in the Depression. They
were warm and dry and useful and free; they provided a place for people to be
together in a desolate time. You could
feel prosperous at the library. There
was so much there, such an abundance, when everything else felt scant and ravaged,
and you could take any of it home with you for free. Or you could just sit at a reading table and
take it all in.
Problems
Every
problem that society has, the library has, too, because the boundary between
society and the library is porous; nothing good is kept out of the library, and
nothing bad. Often, at the library,
society’s problems are magnified.
Homelessness and drug use and mental illness are problems you see in
every public place in Los Angeles. One
difference is that if you see a mentally ill person on the street, you can
cross to the other side. In a library,
you share a smaller and more intimate space. The communal nature of a library
is the very essence of the library, in he shared desks and shared books and
shared restrooms.
The
library’s commitment to being open to all is an overwhelming challenge. For many people, the library may be the only
place they have to be in close quarters with disturbed or profoundly dirty
people, and that can be uncomfortable
But a library can’t be the institution we hope for it to be unless it is
open to everyone.
Libraries
are old-fashioned, but they are growing more popular with people under
thirty. This younger generation uses
libraries in greater numbers than older Americans do, and even though they grew
up in a streaming, digital world, almost two thirds of them believe that there
is important material in libraries that is not available on the Internet. Unlike older generations, people under thirty
are also less likely to have office jobs.
Consequently, they are always looking for pleasant places to work
outside their homes. Many end up in
coffee shops and hotel lobbies or join the booming business of co-working
spaces. Some of them are also
discovering that libraries are society’s original co-working spaces and have
the distinct advantage of being free.
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Brian
Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas
expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone
else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in
the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and
raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often
featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.
This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America and
participated in a PR panel at the Sarah Lawrence College Writers Institute
Conference.
