The fire led to a seven-year closure of the Central Library which was devastating for the employees. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. 'It struck me as being a wonderful way of seeing why libraries feel like these big, collective brains - because they have the memories and stories of a whole culture inside them.'Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Library Book Author Susan Orlean

'A host of memories and stories and anecdotes that we store in our minds disappears when someone dies,' she says. She says the fire reminded her of the proverb that when a person dies, it's as if a library has burned to the ground. Orlean uses the loss and lore of that fire to tell the living, everyday story of a great civic institution that is becoming, in a digital age, perhaps even more vital. A lot of firefighters who I interviewed said it was by far the most challenging, frightening fire that they've ever confronted in their careers.' 'It reached temperatures of 2,500 degrees. 'The fire burned for seven hours,' Orlean says. The Library Book tells the story of the 1986 fire that damaged or destroyed more than one million books in Los Angeles' Central Library. Susan Orlean's new book is like exploring the stacks of a library, where something unexpected and interesting can be discovered on every page. Susan Orlean tells the story of the fire in The Library Book.īen Martin/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned.Smoke engulfs the Los Angeles Public Library on April 29, 1986. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons? The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell. Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. In this dazzling and long-awaited conclusion to the acclaimed Mortal Instruments series, Clary and her friends fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother.

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