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Mar 19, 2019Liber_vermis rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The devastating library fire and the search for an arsonist is just the starting point for author Susan Orlean. This wide-ranging book considers the history of libraries, the future of libraries in the digital age, the social role of libraries in cities, and the processes for the restoration of fire- and water-damaged books. This reader would have appreciated an isometric, cut-away drawing of the Los Angeles Central Library in order to understand the location and path of the fire as described by Orlean (a picture is worth a thousand words). Occasionally, the author's comparisons seem off, for instance when she describes the impact of the heat of an L.A. afternoon as "like a blast from a water cannon" when "like a blast from a hair dryer" might be more apropos. The book ends with a bibliography.