This series of different stories doesn't necessarily focus on only public libraries, although they do focus on what we do with books, how they affect us, and how they make us view the world around us. Interspersed with the stories are conversations with readers and writers reflecting on the essential role that libraries have played in their lives.
I found this to be an interesting collection of stories. Some were stranger than others, and a few times, I found I couldn't quite follow a story. I liked that the author added the conversations with writers and readers, and actually found some of what they said to be a bit more interesting than a few of the stories. For example, Sophie Mayer, said (in context of Buffy, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, citing a library card as a weapon), "Libraries save the world, a lot, but outside the narrative mode of heroism: through contemplative action, anonymously and collectively. For me, the public library is the ideal model of society, the best possible shared space, a community of consent - an anarcho-syndacalist collective where each person is pursuing their own aim (education, entertainment, affect, rest) with respect to others, through the best possible medium of the transmission of ideas, feelings and knowledge: the book." (p. 75)
I wouldn't usually put in such a long quote, but I really love that bit. This is definitely an interesting book to pick up as an introduction to this author, and to some interesting ideas, as well.
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