Public library and other stories

Ali Smith — 2015

"Why are books so very powerful? What do the books we've read over our lives - our own personal libraries - make of us? What does the unravelling of our tradition of public libraries, so hard-won but now in jeopardy, say about us? The stories in Ali Smith's new collection are about what we do with books and what they do with us: how they travel with us; how they shock us, change us, challenge us, banish time while making us older, wiser and ageless all at once; how they coax us endlessly to unexpected blossom; how they remind us to pay attention to the world we make." -- Book jacket.

Reviews

𓆨@viridiantre

Mar 14, 2024

i really enjoyed this

nair@komediebrute

May 12, 2022

Because libraries have always been a part of any civilization they are not negotiable. They are part of our inheritance.

zilver @howl

Sep 19, 2021

4.5 stars. i loved the short stories and i loved the people explaining what libraries meant to them. how important they had been while they were growing up. because the public library next to our house was one of the most important places in my life for the 10 years we lived there. i'd come there daily, sometimes. the people working knew my name and smiled at me when they saw me come in. i participated in all kinds of reader programs. i love that library. (i wrote loved at first but that isn't true. just because i haven't thought of my love for that place in a while doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore.) i don't think i've been back there for a long time. while i was in school the pressure of having to read books inside a three week time span somehow felt like too much. it's been years since i have borrowed a book from an actual library. i have library friends now (you know who you are). but reading this book made me remember what an amazing place a regular library can be. how much it meant to me before. so i think i'll go visit soon when i get back home.