Picture 1 of 1
The Library Book by Orlean, Susan
by Orlean, Susan | HC | Good
Condition:
“Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ”... Read moreabout condition
More than 10 available / 11 sold
Shipping:
Estimated between Tue, Jun 18 and Fri, Jun 21 to 43230
Located in: Aurora, Illinois, United States
Returns:
Payments:
Shop with confidence
Seller information
- 99% positive feedback
Registered as a Business Seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:193972260020
Item specifics
- Condition
- Good
- Seller Notes
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Weight
- 1 lbs
- Product Group
- Book
- IsTextBook
- No
- ISBN
- 9781476740188
- Subject Area
- Language Arts & Disciplines, History, Social Science
- Publication Name
- Library Book
- Item Length
- 9.2 in
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster
- Subject
- United States / 20th Century, Social History, Library & Information Science / General, General, United States / State & Local / West (Ak, CA, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, WY), Criminology
- Publication Year
- 2018
- Type
- Textbook
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- Item Height
- 1.1 in
- Item Width
- 6.2 in
- Item Weight
- 22 Oz
- Number of Pages
- 336 Pages
About this product
Product Information
A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK A WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 "A constant pleasure to read...Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book ." -- The Washington Post "CAPTIVATING...DELIGHTFUL." -- Christian Science Monitor * "EXQUISITELY WRITTEN, CONSISTENTLY ENTERTAINING." -- The New York Times * "MESMERIZING...RIVETING." -- Booklist (starred review) A dazzling love letter to a beloved institution--and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries--from the bestselling author hailed as a "national treasure" by The Washington Post . On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, "Once that first stack got going, it was 'Goodbye, Charlie.'" The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library--and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In The Library Book , Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and present--from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old was named the head of the Los Angeles Public Library at a time when men still dominated the role, to Dr. C.J.K. Jones, a pastor, citrus farmer, and polymath known as "The Human Encyclopedia" who roamed the library dispensing information; from Charles Lummis, a wildly eccentric journalist and adventurer who was determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the current staff, who do heroic work every day to ensure that their institution remains a vital part of the city it serves. Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean's thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books--and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist's reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
ISBN-10
1476740186
ISBN-13
9781476740188
eBay Product ID (ePID)
17038679194
Product Key Features
Publication Name
Library Book
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
United States / 20th Century, Social History, Library & Information Science / General, General, United States / State & Local / West (Ak, CA, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, WY), Criminology
Publication Year
2018
Type
Textbook
Subject Area
Language Arts & Disciplines, History, Social Science
Number of Pages
336 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
9.2 in
Item Height
1.1 in
Item Width
6.2 in
Item Weight
22 Oz
Additional Product Features
LCCN
2018-022454
Intended Audience
Trade
Lc Classification Number
Z733.L8742o75 2018
Reviews
"This is a book only Susan Orlean could have written. Somehow she manages to transform the story of a library fire into the story of literacy, civil service, municipal infighting and vision, public spaces in an era of increasingly privatization and social isolation, the transformation of Los Angeles from small provincial hamlet to innovative collossus and model of civic engagement--and the central role libraries have always and will always play in the life and health of a bustling democracy. Beyond all that, like any good library, it's bursting with incredible tales and characters. There could be no better book for the bookish." --Dave Eggers, author of The Circle and The Monk of Mokha, "Susan Orlean has long been one of our finest storytellers, and she proves it again with The Library Book . A beautifully written and richly reported account, it sheds new light on a thirty-year-old mystery--and, what's more, offers a moving tribute to the invaluableness of libraries." --David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, "A flitting and meandering masterpiece . . . Compelling and undeniably riveting . . . This is a joyful book, and among its many pleasures is the reader's ability to palpate the author's thrill as she zooms down from stratospheric viewings of history, to viscerally detailed observations of events and people, and finally to the kind of irresistibly offbeat facts that create an equally irresistible portrait of the author herself." --J. C. Hallman, San Francisco Chronicle, "Captivating . . . A delightful love letter to public libraries . . . In telling the story of this one library, Orlean reminds readers of the spirit of them all, their mission to welcome and equalize and inform, the wonderful depths and potential that they--and maybe all of us, as well--contain. . . . In other hands the book would have been a notebook dump, packed with random facts that weren't germane but felt too hard-won or remarkable to omit. Orlean's lapidary skills include both unearthing the data and carving a storyline out of the sprawl, piling up such copious and relevant details that I wondered how many mountains of research she discarded for each page of jewels." --Rebekah Denn, Christian Science Monitor, "Exquisitely written, consistently entertaining . . . A loving tribute not just to a place or an institution but to an idea . . . What makes The Library Book so enjoyable is the sense of discovery that propels it, the buoyancy when Orlean is surprised or moved by what she finds. . . . Her depiction of the Central Library fire on April 29, 1986, is so rich with specifics that it's like a blast of heat erupting from the page. . . . The Library Book is about the fire and the mystery of how it started--but in some ways that's the least of it. It's also a history of libraries, and of a particular library, as well as the personal story of Orlean and her mother, who was losing her memory to dementia while Orlean was retrieving her own memories by writing this book." --Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times, "A book lover's dream . . . This is an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories." --Jeffrey Ann Goudie, Minneapolis Star Tribune, "When Susan Orlean fishes for a story, she reels in a hidden world. And so the latest delightful trawl from the author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief starts with the tale of the 1986 fire that damaged or destroyed 700,000 books in the Los Angeles Central Library. But The Library Book pans out quickly to the fractious, eccentric history of the institution and then, almost inevitably, a reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America. Orlean follows the narrative in all directions, juxtaposing the hunt for the library arsonist--possibly a frustrated actor--with a philosophical treatise on why and how libraries became the closest thing many of us experience to a town hall." --Hillary Kelly, New York Magazine, "Like an amble through the rooms and the stacks of a library, where something unexpected and interesting can be discovered on any page." --Scott Simon, NPR's Weekend Edition, "Vivid . . . Compelling . . . Ms. Orlean interweaves a memoir of her life in books, a whodunit, a history of Los Angeles, and a meditation on the rise and fall and rise of civic life in the United States. . . . By turns taut and sinuous, intimate and epic, Ms. Orlean's account evokes the rhythms of a life spent in libraries . . . bringing to life a place and an institution that represents the very best of America: capacious, chaotic, tolerant and even hopeful, with faith in mobility of every kind, even, or perhaps especially, in the face of adversity." --Jane Kamenski, The Wall Street Journal, "After reading Susan Orlean's The Library Book , I'm quite sure I'll never look at libraries, or librarians, the same way again. This is classic Orlean--an exploration of a devastating fire becomes a journey through a world of infinite richness, populated with unexpected characters doing unexpected things, with unexpected passion." --Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City, In the Garden of Beasts, and Dead Wake, "Susan Orlean has long been one of our finest storytellers, and she proves it again with The Library Book . A beautifully written and richly reported account, it sheds new light on a thirty-year-old mystery--and, what's more, offers a moving tribute to the invaluableness of libraries." --David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, "Of course, I will always read anything that Susan Orlean writes--and I would encourage you to do the same, regardless of the topic, because she's always brilliant. But The Library Book is a particularly beautiful and soul-expanding book--even by Orleanean standards. You're going to hear a lot about how important this story is, for shining a spotlight on libraries and the heroic people who run them. That's all true, but there's an even better reason to read it--because it will keep you spellbound from first page to last. Don't miss out on this one, people!" --Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic, "A sheer delight. . . . Orlean has created a book as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library." --Chris Woodyard, USA Today, "Moving . . . A constant pleasure to read . . . Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book. . . . Orlean, a longtime New Yorker writer, has been captivating us with human stories for decades, and her latest book is a wide-ranging, deeply personal, and terrifically engaging investigation of humanity's bulwark against oblivion: the library. . . . As a narrator, Orlean moves like fire herself, with a pyrotechnic style that smolders for a time over some ancient bibliographic tragedy, leaps to the latest technique in book restoration, and then illuminates the story of a wildly eccentric librarian. Along the way, we learn how libraries have evolved, responded to depressions and wars, and generally thrived despite a constant struggle for funds. Over the holidays, every booklover in America is going to give or get this book. . . . You can't help but finish The Library Book and feel grateful that these marvelous places belong to us all." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post, "A lovely book . . . Susan Orlean has once again found rich material where no one else has bothered to look for it. . . . Once again, she's demonstrated that the feelings of a writer, if that writer is sufficiently talented and her feelings sufficiently strong, can supply her own drama. You really never know how seriously interesting a subject might be until such a person takes a serious interest in it." --Michael Lewis, New York Times Book Review
Copyright Date
2018
Dewey Decimal
027.4794/94
Dewey Edition
23
Illustrated
Yes
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:193972260020
Shipping and handling
Item location:
Aurora, Illinois, United States
Ships to:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of Croatia, Republic of the Congo, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.), Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Western Samoa, Worldwide, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Excludes:
Barbados, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Libya, Martinique, New Caledonia, Reunion, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Venezuela
| Shipping and handling | Each additional item | To | Service | Delivery*See Delivery notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free shipping | Free | United States | Economy Shipping | Estimated between Tue, Jun 18 and Fri, Jun 21 to 43230 |
| US $15.99 (approx C $22.00) | US $15.99 (approx C $22.00) | United States | Expedited Shipping | Estimated on or before Mon, Jun 17 to 43230 |
| Taxes |
|---|
| Seller charges sales tax in |
Sales tax for an item #193972260020
Sales tax for an item #193972260020
Seller collects sales tax for items shipped to the following provinces:
| Province | Sales Tax Rate |
|---|---|
| Missouri (MO) | 8.238% |
Return policy
| After receiving the item, contact seller within | Refund will be given as |
|---|---|
| 30 days after the buyer receives it | Money Back |
The seller is responsible for return shipping costs.
Payment details
Payment methods
Seller feedback (5,216,481)
This item (2)
All items (5,216,481)
_***a (115)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
Free shipping, quick delivery, good product. Laughed when I saw one of the books was withdrawn from the local library where I had worked for over thirty years! Thanks, ThriftBooks!
f***n (253)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past month
Verified purchase
Fast shipping.
thank you
z***z (602)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
🏆 SUPER STAR 🤩 AMAZING PHOTOS 🎯 ACCURATE DESCRIPTION ✏️ GENUINE PRODUCTS 💎 HIGH QUALITY 🍯 SUPER PRICES 💰 EASY TO WORK WITH 🍰 ECONOMY HANDLING ⏱️ FAST SHIPPING 🚀 BUBBLE PACKAGE 📦 ARRIVED WITHIN DAYS 🌎 EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNICATION 🎙️ OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE 🛎️ GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR 🍿 TOTAL ASSET TO THE EBAY-ECO SYSTEM 🥇 SAVED SELLER 🎱 PROMT REPLY FOR RETURNS 🎯 WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN 🧲 UNDER PROMISES OVER DELIVERS ⛳️ MADE ME VERY HAPPY 🌈 LEFT POSITIVE FEEDBACK 🌼 THANK YOU! 😇 A+++
u***2 (279)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
Outstanding seller. Fair prices that are more than reasonable in this economy. The product is in better condition than described, a true value for my money.
Packaged and shipped well shows seller has concern for the products sold to arrive in excellent condition. The seller communicated timely with progress. Highly recommend this seller & will do business again. Thank you!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
a***r (328)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
thrift.books is an awesome place to purchase books! excellent communication! often the books arrive in better condition than described. ships very fast & the books arrive quickly! carefully packaged! +AAAAAAAAAA ebay sellers. i highly recommend thrift.books for people wanting to purchase books! reaasonable prices and shipping costs!
Product ratings and reviews
Most relevant reviews
- Dec 22, 2020Top favourable review
A Study of Libraries that Speaks Volumes
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: thrift.books
- May 11, 2021Top critical review
Heavy, sliw read
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: goodwill_colorado_springs
- Nov 03, 2020
Wonderful description of library history and their mission to be a safe center of knowledge.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: goodwill_colorado_springs
- Jul 21, 2020
People who love libraries will enjoy this.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: discover-books
- Sep 26, 2019
The Library Book is about the L.A. Public Library and a serious fire that almost halfed it's contents. If you enjoy libraries as I do this is the book
Verified purchase: YesCondition: NewSold by: firefly.rr
More to explore:
- Susan Wiggs Fiction & Fiction Books Ex-Library,
- Susan Mallery Fiction & Fiction Books Ex-Library,
- Susan Elizabeth Phillips Fiction Fiction Books & Ex-Library,
- Susan Wittig Albert Fiction Fiction Books & Ex-Library,
- Susan Branch Other Books,
- Ex-Library Fiction & Books,
- Franklin Library Antiquarian & Collectible Books,
- Modern Library Antiquarian & Collectible Books,
- Fiction Ex-Library Fiction & Books,
- Ex-Library Antiquarian & Collectible Books