Tag Archives: library

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

IMG_0222I ate up this nonfiction number that weaves together the history of the LA library, the histories of libraries throughout all of time, the events involving the LA library fire in the 1980s, and tidbits about the many services that the library currently provides. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am OBSESSED with libraries and the many services that they provide to the communities that they serve. Have you ever thought about how libraries are one of the only places in America where people can congregate for free without having to be a paying customer? In addition to access to books, computers, and knowledge, libraries provide many essential resources and services, like tax preparation tips, to their local communities. I’m so passionate about libraries that my old coworkers used to subtly bring up the library just to prod me into my tirade about the importance of libraries — I love libraries and I love this book! This is all to say, the appeal of this book may be totally niche, but I am the perfect reader for it.

Orlean is very talented in how she blends all of these histories, including an investigation into the cause of the great library fire, and modern day events together to create a brilliant nonfiction piece that is completely captivating. I talked about this book with everyone I saw while I was reading it and shortly after and I recommend you do the same!

& here’s my favorite lil fragment that captures the beauty and comfort of libraries,

“The library, where lonely people can feel slightly less lonely together”

Disclaimer: I was provided with a digital copy of this book for free from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in the review are my own and have not been influenced by Simon & Schuster or NetGalley.

Publication Date: 16 October 2018 by Simon & SchusterFormat: Digital ARC.

Author: Susan Orlean web/@twitter

Advertisements

harry potter series by j. k. rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Audiobook Cover

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Audiobook Cover

Last fall during the holiday season, I found myself feeling a bit nostalgic. I had moved to a new city that I hadn’t quite adjusted to yet and was missing being geographically close to my loved ones. To combat my homesickness, I decided to dip into one of my favorite memories and reads from my childhood: the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. I hadn’t done a proper re-read since the final book (Deathly Hallows) was published in 2007 and it was time for me to re-visit the beloved series. I was able to finish the first two books in 2014 and listened to books 3-7 in 2015, with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban being my first completed book of 2015 and thus kickstarting my journey of reading 52 books in 52 days during 2015.

Unfortunately, my hardcover books are stowed away at my grandparents’ house and I didn’t want to carry the heavier books (aka 4-7) on the subway every day, so I decided to digitally check out the audiobooks from my local library. If you’re a member of your local library, you should find out if your library has digital services. The Brooklyn Public Library has a few digital resources, including Overdrive, a service that I access on my phone regularly. If you haven’t used Overdrive or if you’re not a member of your local library, I thoroughly recommend you introduce both of these into your life! Libraries are pretty great, but they’re even better when they give me access to resources like digital Harry Potter audiobooks for free when the entire series would have cost $242 if I paid to own them!! Audiobooks are very expensive and public libraries are helping expand access to them. This post could also aptly be titled “A Love Letter to Public Libraries.”

These audiobooks were absolutely great and allowed me to dive back into a series that I grew up adoring, while allowing them to feel fresh because the narrator, Jim Dale, is enormously talented. Even though the series is comprised of more than a hundred characters, Dale managed to provide each of them with a unique voice. He is definitely the most adept audiobook narrator that I’ve listened to so far since my foray into audiobooks approximately a year ago.

If you haven’t done a re-read (or a read ever) of the Harry Potter series, think about adding them to your to-read pile. If you haven’t listened to an audiobook before, I think this series narrated by Jim Dale is a wonderful introduction to how fun they can be to weave into your life.

Publication dates: 29 June 1997 – 21 July 2007 by Pottermore. Format: Digital Audiobook.

Author: J. K. Rowling web/@twitter

Narrator: Jim Dale web
https://girlwithabookblog.com/tag/library/
girlwithabookblog.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-13
43762
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:DFUPRVUFRKJMIRZIY5IHVS2DD7FVQBIA
<urn:uuid:8699c841-c42d-453b-9d15-47512c4af883>
2019-03-20T21:09:30Z
192.0.78.25
text/html
sha1:KMXHXZPSCNK6RDT3RBOEI4OUVLOK2VFD
<urn:uuid:07fff802-03c9-459c-a53f-13f86ffe5976>
https://girlwithabookblog.com/tag/library/
response
<urn:uuid:540edf43-4a28-4f29-92a8-80521cdcebf9>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-13
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for March 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-145-45-50.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/