- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (2 Oct 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434008877
- ISBN-13: 978-0434008872
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 86,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Sunday Herald
‘Eloquently written and genuinely enlightening. Battles’s book is a telling testimony to the way libraries can transform lives'
Book Description
A slim history of the library that speaks volumes.
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First Sentence
When I first went to work in Harvard's Widener Library, I immediately made my first mistake: I tried to read the books. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
When I first went to work in Harvard's Widener Library, I immediately made my first mistake: I tried to read the books. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An easy reading potted history of libraries throughout history and geography. This book reminds one of the somewhat depressing side to the development of libraries; their use and destruction for political ends, often including the users! Especially poignant was the 20th century library destructions, in an age where we should know better. This book suffers from being too short. Just when you want to go delving into the back shelves of a subject, the author moves you on.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mr Battles's "Library" is not a study for scholars but for general readers who will be charmed by its old-fashioned character, by the elegant prose of its sentences and paragraphs and by its human portrait of libraries. The recording and transmission of knowledge from generation to generation is one of the greatest achievements of mankind and libraries play a crucial role in this process. And it is certainly disquieting to learn about the destruction of millions of books by the Nazis in the Louvain library or the siege of the Boston National and University Library but then Mr Battles reassures the reader by focussing on the building of outstanding collections and on the central role of libraries in every society. Who would have thought that the books in the infamous "model Jewish city" at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Final Solution "cast the ghetto reader into bibliopsychological relief"?
An excellent study which will delight all those who appreciate books. And the next time we enter a library, we should keep in mind that "readers read books; librarians read readers"!
An excellent study which will delight all those who appreciate books. And the next time we enter a library, we should keep in mind that "readers read books; librarians read readers"!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a book of passion-a passion for books and for libraries. Battles' learning is vast and eclectic yet worn lightly, and his anecdotes and information are a mixture of history, sociology, aesthetics wit and romance.
A Harvard rare books librarian himself, Battles reveals the ancient drive to posess and catalogue books, the excesses and eccentricties of bibliophiles and the dramas betwen the stacks. The library is a stage on which great men (sadly, few women, although the great Harvard library was itself endowed by one) from Constantine to Dean Swift, from Gibbon to Hitler all play their part. Here is a history of greed, venality violence, obsession and love. It is a book I should love to have written.
For a book about collecting it is also a delightfully presented volume. Read it and your shelf life will never be the same.
A Harvard rare books librarian himself, Battles reveals the ancient drive to posess and catalogue books, the excesses and eccentricties of bibliophiles and the dramas betwen the stacks. The library is a stage on which great men (sadly, few women, although the great Harvard library was itself endowed by one) from Constantine to Dean Swift, from Gibbon to Hitler all play their part. Here is a history of greed, venality violence, obsession and love. It is a book I should love to have written.
For a book about collecting it is also a delightfully presented volume. Read it and your shelf life will never be the same.
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