#The Library Book

[a-ramblinrose]

“A library is a good place to soften solitude; a place where you feel part of a conversation that has gone on for hundreds and hundreds of years even when you’re all alone. The library is a whispering post. You don’t need to take a book off a shelf to know there is a voice inside that is waiting to speak to you, and behind that was someone who truly believed that if he or she spoke, someone would listen. It was that affirmation that always amazed me. Even the oddest, most particular book was written with that kind of crazy courage—the writer’s belief that someone would find his or her book important to read. I was struck by how precious and foolish and brave that belief is, and how necessary, and how full of hope it is to collect these books and manuscripts and preserve them. It declares that all these stories matter, and so does every effort to create something that connects us to one another, and to our past and to what is still to come.”

― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[dont-read-this-im-dead]

Sitting in the library, reading The Library Book. 😆

[ijustkindalikebooks]

From The Library Book by Gabby Dawnay.

[b33viemm]

some of my mother's favorite books :D

inspired by @mostlyghostie pls go check them out their art is super cool!!!!!!!!!!!

IDs in alt (they're long) click for higher quality

[cinnamon-shakes]

I designed an alternate book cover! The Library Book by Susan Orlean is about the fire in LA's public library in 1986 and it's a love letter to libraries and all the people that surround it.

Here's how I made the cover

[morgan--reads]

Summary: A history of the Los Angeles Public Library and the fire that destroyed large portions of its collection in 1986. 

Quote: “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.”

My rating: 3.5/5.0   Goodreads: 3.89/5.0 

Review: The history of the LA library is full of characters and interesting events far beyond the fire that frames the book and Orlean does a great job bringing that history to life. I found the book too romantic about libraries in places, the ornate prose devoted to extolling their virtues is a little much. My personal bias as a librarian is probably to blame for some of this. A lot of what felt like high-level summary to me might be interesting to someone who doesn’t know a lot about the diverse offerings that public libraries now have. Orlean does make a convincing case that libraries are important institutions but I don’t know if she is convincing enough for me to believe that libraries are saviors of society.

[doctorslippery]

[septemberkisses]

the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

[fatimazainab]

Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

[a-ramblinrose]

“A book feels like a thing alive in this moment, and also alive on a continuum, from the moment the thoughts about it first percolated in the writer’s mind to the moment it sprang off the printing press—a lifeline that continues as someone sits with it and marvels over it, and it continues on, time after time after time. Once words and thoughts are poured into them, books are no longer just paper and ink and glue: They take on a kind of human vitality. The poet Milton called this quality in books “the potency of life.”

― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

[wedarkacademia]

[deadlypoetacademia]

[daily-spooky]

[novella-november]

Do you have the Libby library app?

If not, download it to your phone, and under "Add library card" select the button to search for a library and start typing in "queer"...

Sign up with an email, no actual address required, and you are good to go 🏳️‍🌈

[ID: A screenshot of the Queer Liberation Library Libby main page, showing 6 titles, one of which is an audio book. The titles displayed are the Trans Teen Survival Guide; Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next); We Will Be Shelter: Poems for Survival; Tomboy Survival Guide; A Burst of Light and Other Essays; and Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction. End ID]

(thank you @teddypoi-qd for the ID!]

EDIT: Here is the Queer Liberation Library's donation page!

[catchymemes]