The Library Book
Ratings4
Average rating2.9
Whether brand new or steeped in history, real or imagined, libraries feature in everyone's lives. In memoirs, essays and stories that are funny, moving, visionary or insightful, twenty-three famous writers celebrate these places where minds open and the world expands.
Public libraries are lifelines, to practical information as well as to the imagination, but funding is under threat all over the country. This book is published in support of libraries, with all royalties going to The Reading Agency's library programmes.
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With the exception of Stephen Fry's thoughtful and warm tribute to libraries, the rest of these brief memoirs and short-stories were filled with the usual Gen X litany of “kids these days don't read books” and “e-books are the scourge of the earth”. The latter sentiment, in particular, did not age well, as library e-books have been a saving grace for many of us in the COVID era. Not to mention individuals who simply don't have access to physical libraries due to location, disability, or a lack of time.
This book might be better suited to someone looking for a fix of nostalgia, or someone who needs convincing about the benefits of libraries. But as someone whose book consumption is 99.9% library-based, there wasn't much value in this for me.
