Libraries before books, after books and in books

Not to be confused with The Library Book by Susan Orlean, The Library by Stuart Kells (2017) is more interesting in parts than as a whole. That's probably because it reads more like an encyclopedia of library history than a single narrative about the history of libraries. Some entries just appeal more than others. A reader may be tempted to skip around in the book as its author does in his history of the library.

Libraries go back a long time. They even, Kells says, predate books. He counts the practice of preliterate tribes of remembering the legends of their culture as early libraries. In some cultures this still goes on. The film The Good Lie shows Sudanese children drilling each other on the names of ancestors they never knew so they would never forget them

From there Kells goes on to talk about libraries before paper or printing, when books were written on a variety of materials, including papyrus, palm leaves ivory, wood, stone and even such exotic materials as silk, bamboo, copper, turtle shells, antlers and the intestines of elephants. He writes about how books were stored (they haven't always been placed on shelves), organized, copied, preserved, treasured, censored and, too often, destroyed.

Fictional libraries get a surprising amount of attention. Kells calls Umberto Eco's creation in The Name of the Rose "the most captivating library in fiction" and, just two pages later, "the most enchanting library ever captured in words." He gives attention, too, to libraries described in The Lord of the Rings and other books.

There is much to like about The Library, but there are also times when the reader may be tempted to find a good library and pick out a better book to read.