"On the morning of April 28, 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?"
I was really excited when my hold arrived for this book --- the waiting list was long, and is still long. Now that I have read it, I feel like this is definitely a book I'm going to buy for myself --- not only to share with my family, but so I can have my own copy to put post-it notes and notes in. This is a fascinating and entertaining read!!!
I had never known about this fire until I read about this book. Admittedly, in April of 1986, I was at boarding school in Wisconsin and while I sometimes would read the newspapers in the library, I didn't make a habit of it until around 1988. I did, though, ask my husband if he knew about the fire, since he had attended boarding school, as well, but in Los Angeles, and would have been there in 1986. He said he had a vague recollection, but he never went to that library. Considering the news about the Chernobyl disaster eclipsed any news about the library, I guess I'm not too surprised.
I really enjoyed how the author went back in forth in time, so you would get a clear picture of the library today and the people who work there, but then you also get the history of the library and all the people who in charge of it up until the day of the fire. Her descriptions of the fire are horrifying, yet fascinating. I started reading parts of this book out loud to my husband . . . until I just gave up and told him I'd buy the book eventually and he'd have to read it. Just a great book!!
I will note that I'm sure the author has had many, many comments from librarians on the part in the book where she writes about a library clerk who plans to go to library school --- and it's a good living, because starting salaries are $60K. Um, that must be nice. I don't know many places where that's a starting salary for an entry-level librarian position . . .
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