Book: The Library: A Fragile History
Authors: Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
Release Date: Oct 14, 2021
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley
In case
you missed it, this week (the week of Sept 6, 2021) a man tweeted about how
people virtue signal with large libraries and that you really shouldn’t own
more than x number of books (or have x number of shelf space) and that he didn’t
believe people read more than two books a week. Needless to say the vast amount
of book lovers called him out - and then
he accused them of bragging about the number of books they read and virtue signaling. Then accused them of not going to the library. Which is strange because most readers buy a
lot of books and borrow from the library.
Not to mention, in some areas, local libraries are either very small or
very far away.
Anyway,
he doesn’t get libraries of any type really or readers for that matter.
Lucky,
we have books like this one by Pettegree and der Weduwen that not only get
libraries, but also get readers and those who love libraries, be they personal
or public.
Pettegree
and de Weduwen chronicle the raise of the personal if elitist library and then
move to the advent of the public library.
The bulk of the history on the library in the Western World, therefore mostly
Europe and America (why is Canada always overlooked, I mean really, unless it
is hockey or maple syrup).
That said,
the book is a pretty good overview. The
coverage of the Medieval Period is well done, and includes women who developed
personal libraries as well as men. They
focus on the Dutch who owned personal libraries in the periods of the Renaissance
and Reformation, and move into the modern era where they discuss not only the development
of the public library, especially in
regards to the Carnegie libraries.
There is
a particularly good section that discusses the rise in women readers as well as
the popularity of romance novels. Considering
how little respect the romance genre and romance readers do seem to get from
various histories and commenters on books, it was a nice nod to see two authors
highlight the positivity of the genre.
The
subtitle comes because the focus is on the tragedies of losing libraries. The loss of Alexandria is covered, of course;
but the authors include other, less well known losses. The modern era could use
a bit more development in terms of the section about the attempts of book
challenges and bans that occur, not just in the US. It should be noted that bans and challenges
are covered as are librarcides.
The book
is readable and engrossing. It is a
quick and excellent history. Well worth
the read, and the owning of, if you like books.
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