A celebration of reading, of libraries, and of the mysterious human
desire to give order to the universe Inspired by the process of
creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire,
in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and
reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. "Libraries," he
says, "have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as
long as I can remember I've been seduced by their labyrinthine
logic." In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and
wide-ranging book, he offers a captivating meditation on the
meaning of libraries. Manguel, a guide of irrepressible enthusiasm,
conducts a unique library tour that extends from his childhood
bookshelves to the "complete" libraries of the Internet, from
Ancient Egypt and Greece to the Arab world, from China and Rome to
Google. He ponders the doomed library of Alexandria as well as the
personal libraries of Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges, and
others. He recounts stories of people who have struggled against
tyranny to preserve freedom of thought-the Polish librarian who
smuggled books to safety as the Nazis began their destruction of
Jewish libraries; the Afghani bookseller who kept his store open
through decades of unrest. Oral "memory libraries" kept alive by
prisoners, libraries of banned books, the imaginary library of
Count Dracula, the library of books never written-Manguel
illuminates the mysteries of libraries as no other writer could.
With scores of wonderful images throughout, The Library at Night is
a fascinating voyage through Manguel's mind, memory, and vast
knowledge of books and civilizations.
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