Welcome to Quill Quotes Book Club’s final discussion for The Library Book! We hope you enjoyed the book. Note, this discussion covers the full book and will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t finished reading yet you may want to go back to The Library Book Summary Page for the first discussion.
Brooke’s Thoughts
I really liked this book, it was entertaining and I learned a lot. My only complaint is the chapters jumped around a lot in time which isn’t my favorite. It’s a unique idea, I never thought I would enjoy learning so much about Los Angeles and a library. I always knew libraries were more than just loaning books but I had no idea how much more they were. It really makes me want to start going again instead of reading e-books all of the time. I enjoyed her writing style and wanted to keep reading but I don’t know if I was that invested in who started the fire. I really like the history and how the library has changed more. Overall, 4 stars!
Favorite Quote
“Destroying a culture’s books is sentencing it to something worse than death: It is sentencing it to seem as if it never lived.”
– Susan Orlean, The Library Book
Kevin’s Thoughts
Kevin is traveling and will post his final thoughts soon.
The Library Book Final Discussion Prompts/Questions
Feel free to comment whatever thoughts and questions you have! But if you aren’t sure where to start, consider some of the prompts/questions below:
- Do you think Harry Peaks started the fire or it was an accident?
- Do you use a Public Library?
- Do you use it for anything besides books?
- Would you read another book by Susan Orlean?
- Share a favorite quote!
Commenting
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We hope you enjoy this discussion and join us again next month!
Very interesting book! It was interesting to me how many people use the libraries in the big cities for varies things not just borrowing a book. I’ve lived in mostly small towns so I usually just get books. I do remember taking my kids when they were young to get books, we didn’t have a lot of money to buy books. I do admit I buy more books now either paperback or buy on my kindle.
I did like reading about the history of library. I did wonder if they would ever convict Harry of starting the fire. It would have been nice to know what really happened but we will probably never know exactly how the fire started.
The last page of book had a nice quote. All the things that are wrong in the world seemed conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story, here is my story, please listen.
I am unsure if Harry started the fire or not. I’m leaning towards no but I wouldn’t have been surprised if he did. If it wasn’t him I think it was an accident. Too bad they couldn’t fireproof the library sooner.
Reading this book makes me want to visit the library again. I haven’t been in a couple of years. I remember I enjoyed walking or riding my bike to the library when I was younger.
That’s a great quote and I think a lot of people appreciate their library more because of this book.