The Library Book

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.

Fetishes, a (natural) death, streakers, and the occasional ram raid by an old lady on a mobility scooter, libraries can sometimes be dramatic places to work, although in the main, peaceful citadels of book worship.  The Library Book, is a celebration of our best free institution, long may it continue.

As books of this nature usually are, this tome ends up being a mixed bag, my favourite essays were the personal reminiscences of libraries from writers such as, Susan Hill, Stephen Fry, Hardeep Singh Kohli, and Val McDermid, to name a few. Even so, many of these memories take on a similar vein and as such are probably best enjoyed over a lengthier time than the two days in which I flew through this book.

The insights featured are mainly focused on British libraries, which makes it as much of a nostalgia trip, as it is a quirky insight into our national character. There are plenty of interesting facts on offer too, for example, during World War Two, a disused tube station in Bethnal Green was turned into a library during the blitz so people could distract themselves with a good book.  Perhaps surprisingly the readers were most interested in Plato’s Republic, Burton’s the Anatomy of Melancholy, as well as Schopenhauer, Bunyan, and Bertrand Russell.

The occasional fiction extract didn’t interest me as much as it would have done in a compendium of such works, but this was made up for by Tom Holland’s reference (unsurprisingly) to Borges’ The Library of Babel, and his brief history of the libraries in antiquity.

It will, again, come as no surprise that a book featuring a segment from bass player and writer, Nicky Wire, from the Manic Street Preachers, would have the lyric ‘Libraries gave us power’ from the excellent some A Design for Life.  It is perhaps telling that there is so much pressure from those in government to close these wonderful places whilst the general public are willing to fight for them.

Speculations on the future of libraries was interesting but as a die-hard book lover, I long for the days of a building full of books, and books only.  Such is my wish for choice, but also for misty-eyed reasons too.

With our libraries under threat from politicians who have enough money to have never needed to use a library, it’s abundantly clear that they don’t understand the life changing power of books, how they equalise society – perhaps they do understand that bit – and can educate where schools can fail thanks to their bloated and rushed curriculums.

The ability to travel where the written word takes the reader, on adventures experienced singularly despite being read by many, the unique journey each one of us experiences with our tapestry of books is one of the best things about reading. The Library Book is an above average read but it will encourage any reader to visit their library and read (even) more vociferously.