The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders

Today's post is on The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders by Stuart Kells. It is 269 pages long and is published by Counterpoint Press. The cover is a picture from the inside of a beautiful library. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of libraries, books, and humanity. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence it in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- A love letter to libraries and to their makers and protectors, a celebration of books as objects, and an account of how the idea of the library continues to possess our imagination
Libraries are much more than mere collections of volumes. The best are magical, fabled places whose fame has become part of the cultural wealth they are designed to preserve.
Some still exist today; some are lost, like those of Herculaneum and Alexandria; some have been sold or dispersed; and some never existed, such as those libraries imagined by J.R.R Tolkien, Umberto Eco, and Jorge Luis Borges, among others.
Ancient libraries, grand baroque libraries, scientific libraries, memorial libraries, personal libraries, clandestine libraries: Stuart Kells tells the stories of their creators, their prizes, their secrets and their fate. To research this book, Kells traveled around the world with his young family like modern day ‘Library Tourists.’ Kells discovered that all the world’s libraries are connected in beautiful and complex ways, that in the history of libraries, fascinating patterns are created and repeated over centuries. More importantly, he learned that stories about libraries are stories about people, containing every possible human drama.
The Library is a fascinating and engaging exploration of libraries as places of beauty and wonder. It’s a celebration of books as objects, a celebration of the anthropology and physicality of books and bookish space, and an account of the human side of these hallowed spaces by a leading and passionate bibliophile.

Review- This is an interesting book about not just libraries but the history of books and how we remember things as a species but at times it can drag with many details and less than enthralling stories. In general this is a well told narrative about how we humans have told stories, kept records, and changed the world around us. We start with oral traditions and move from there. Kells has done good research into the stories he tells as we move from ancient days to more modern ones. He discusses all kinds of libraries from real private ones to ones that can only exist in the imagination. I have had the pleasure of reading Borges and his vision of libraries is awe-inspiring and terrifying. Kells has a great love for this subject and if you are interested in libraries and humanity, then you should check this one out.

I give this a Three out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and borrowed this book from my local library.