Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History by Lucien X. Polastron03/16/2008 10:12:57 PM
Location : Cleveland, OH
As a supporter and weekly visitor to libraries, this book piqued my interest while sitting in the "New" section of the library.
Contents:
Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1: In the Cradle of Libraries
Chapter 2: The Papyrus Region
Chapter 3: Islam of the First Days
Chapter 4: People of the Book
Chapter 5: Asia before the Twentieth Century
Chapter 6: The Christian West
Chapter 7: The New Biblioclasts
Chapter 8: Peace Damages
Chapter 9: An Embarrassment of Modernity
Chapter 10: Flameproof Knowledge
Chapter 11: Epilogue: Return to Alexandria
Appendix 1: The Great Writers Are Unanimous: Delenda est bibliotheca!
Appendix 2: A Short History of the Census of Lost Books with a Legend to Bring It to a Close-The Hidden Library
Appendix 3: A Selective Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History, by Lucien X. Polastron, could be viewed as the standard for the cataloging of the destruction of libraries and books through the ages. Polastron takes the reader on a historical (and not so historical) journey as he details the gathering of knowledge, only to describe its destruction. While we are familiar with the great library in Alexandria, Polastron describes other libraries, of similar importance, that have vanished from the Earth. Some were discovered in the 1900's only to see their contents be trampled under foot or sold off as kindling for fires. While it is easy to visualize the fires, natural disasters, and the elements that have consumed many of the libraries, Polastron also weaves a tale of the possible destruction of this generations libraries due to the digitalization of books. The idea that we can read books for free may become a thing of the past.
Overall, this book was worthy of my time. But it seemed as though this was two books, the first half, if you can get through it, read like a scholarly paper. It is very rough going. But then, about Chapter 6, the tone changes and it becomes a very readable and enjoyable book. It seemed as though there were two editors working on the book, and they didn't speak to each other. I can imagine that many people will read a couple of chapters only to become discouraged and close the book. If you can get through them, the rest of the book is quite good. Another issue I had with the book; early chapters seemed to give the reader some context for the destruction of libraries, but the later ones do not provide you with this background. It was if this wasn't important.
Even though the latter chapters are much more readable and enjoyable than the first half, it is hard to recommend this book to the general population. It seems focused on those in the library sciences and historians. It is an important book, but not very accessible. And that is too bad.
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