![]() ![]() She describes the investigation of the fire, believed to be arson, and reveals how difficult in many cases arson is to prove, and how some of the assumptions investigators make can mislead them. She describes what that day was like for library employees, who felt like they were witnessing a death. We learn about the laborious salvage operation that restored books soaked in water, books that would quickly have succumbed to mold and been rendered useless. Over 400,000 books were lost, another 700,000 damaged. The fire began in the northeast stack of the fiction section and reached 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, so hot that the flames were pale blue in color. She describes her own childhood, going to the Bertram Woods Library in Shaker Heights, and the library near her Los Angeles home, followed by a tour of the Central Library where she learned about the fire of April 29, 1986. ![]() Orlean’s book on the Los Angeles Public Library reads like a love letter to libraries. ![]() I don’t allow political signs on my property–except for the library. In the course of my life, I’ve lived in two cities with great library systems, Cleveland (where the author of this work grew up) and Columbus. McMillan Library in Youngstown, Ohio, and later to the branch library near my home, losing myself in books. Summary: Centered around the fire that destroyed much of the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986, chronicles the history of the library, and why libraries are such important parts of our communities. ![]()
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