Read an excerpt from “The Library: A Fragile History”

Great news for those of you who loved Susan Orlean’s The Library Book.

There’s another history of libraries, but this one starts much farther back in time — and should make you even more grateful that the institutions exist.

The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen starts back in the ancient world and goes all the way to our current digital age.

Literary Hub has an excerpt from The Library that splits the difference, sort of, with a focus on how Sir Thomas Bodley revamped the University of Oxford’s library.

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