The Library at Night is for anyone who has ever said "Yes, actually, I
do need all of these books." Alberto Manguel has written an
inspiring book about keeping books. He explores all aspects of
libraries dropping little facts and bits of wisdom that he has gleaned
over the years from collecting and living with printed material.
He has so many books that when he lived in Toronto he was forced to
shelve them on his front porch. His children complained that they
felt the need of a library card in order to enter their home.
There is plenty of information here regarding the history of libraries,
great collections, famous library buildings, great librarians and
certainly Manguel's own library. A charming and erudite writer,
Manguel is no book snob. Detective fiction, poetry, history,
fiction, non-fiction all have a place in his book room. One of my
favourite chapters was about organizing libraries - do you organize
them by language (Manguel reads in 5 or 6 languages)?, by country of
origin?, alphabetically by author?, by category?, do you separate works by best
friends because they don't write in the same category? These are
weighty issues for anyone with more than a handful of books. I
have a library and I have a lot of books, although not nearly as many
as Manguel, so I was interested in his response to the ever popular
question "Have you actually read all of these books?". His simple
reply is "Well, I've certainly opened them all".Buy at Amazon
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