This recounting of the 1986 fire that devastated the Central Library in Los Angeles acts as a catalyst for a primer on the science of fire and also a look at how it may have started, a bit of library history worldwide, why libraries matter, hilarious stories about some of the goings-on in libraries and much more.
Orlean has the knack for pulling threads on a seemingly mundane institution and shining a light on what makes it special. After describing the book burnings during the Nazi regime in Germany she decides to burn one herself to get a truer sense of what that would feel like. It didn’t feel great. After a careful investigation on who may have started the fire she comes up confounded and thinks maybe it wasn’t arson after all.
Orlean has produced an informative and fascinating tribute to libraries.
Carol Lloyd is the Churchill County Librarian, and avid reader, and promoter of local artists.
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