The Library at Night
by Alberto Manguel
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alberto ManguelEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-28
ISBN: 0300151306
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Yale University Press
Book Reviews of The Library at Night
Book Review: A Passion for Libraries
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. Manguel thoughtfully explains both the importance of collecting books and the reason that doing so generates such passion. The book may have a particularly strong appeal to those, like me, who are already dedicated builders of a personal library, but his fifteen meditations on the meaning of libraries can be read with profit by anyone who appreciates the comfort, the stimulation, the diversion, or the link with the past that is provided by a good book. The chapters of the book are organized as metaphors, with the library seen as myth, shadow, workshop, imagination, home, and so on. Perhaps my favorite chapter was "The Library as Island," or at least I copied down more passages from that section than any other. Manguel describes better than anyone else I can think of the joyful experience of being the "first discoverer" of a book, or a passage, or a character, even though countless numbers of readers may have been there before us. But then, I also loved what he says about the interplay between architecture and reading in "The Library as Shape." And then there is this, from "The Library as Oblivion": "To hold and transmit memory, to learn through the experience of others, to share knowledge of the world and of ourselves, are some of the powers (and dangers ) that books confer upon us, and the reasons why we both treasure and fear them" (p. 266). Manguel mentions many books from his own library, often very briefly but occasionally at length, but this is never done arrogantly. True, while reading this book you may occasionally feel that you have hardly read a thing of any real importance in a lifetime of reading, but that's neither Manguel's fault nor his intention. He is clearly passionate about libraries in general, and his own in particular, and as he discusses cherished books, stories, memories, and people (especially the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges), we get a glimpse not only into the mind of an immensely erudite man, but into the heart of a thoroughly humane reader as well. I will read more of Manguel's work, and soon. But this is a book I will return to.
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