
Every Library Has a Story to Tell - diodorus
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/books-about-libraries-history
======
komali2
Sometime during year one at my university I was wandering the stacks, pulling
books out at random to see what kinda stuff there was. It was 7 stories of
stacks, including the basement which had these crazy moving shelves.

At one point I'm at a shelf and pulling out thin volumes with titles like
(remembering poorly) "Shift calculations of blah blah style concrete,"
"weather effects on bloo blee cement," "compression formulas for heehaw
company concrete," and so on. Book after book. Next shelf, same thing, entire
volumes of concrete and cement research and data. All with different titles,
different content, different authors.

As I moved down more I realized the entire row was books on concrete. How? was
all I could wonder. How could there possibly be this much published
information on concrete? Who dedicated significant amount of time to compile
research, stick it in a thin volume, and then have it placed among a thousand
others? What librarian chose these books?

I had a mild plan when going into college of reading a whole lot of everything
I could get my hands on, but it was only then that I really grasped just how
much information is available to mankind. It's truly unassailable. (probably
relates well to the other article on the front page right now about the last
man to know everything)

~~~
imaadrashied
Oh man this makes me nostalgic.

Had a similar experience while taking a break from studying. Picked a random
row of books only to realize it was entirely dedicated to genital
reconstruction and sex-changes. Being in college, my curiosity was piqued. I
may never unsee some of the pictures in those books.

Edit: Spelling

~~~
njarboe
piqued?

------
Luc
Here's a few pictures of Manguel's old library:
[https://thesleeplessreader.com/2012/09/24/the-library-at-
nig...](https://thesleeplessreader.com/2012/09/24/the-library-at-night-by-
alberto-manguel/)

It doesn't look like 35k books. Must be very efficiently stacked in there.

~~~
Freak_NL
Very efficient indeed! I would guess the wide bottom shelves hold double rows
at least. If I use my own meagre collection of not even 1000 books as a guide,
I would estimate that that room can hold about 20000 books if used as
efficiently as possible.

That room looks blissfully comfortable.

------
Jun8
"I have always imagined Paradise as a kind of library." But also consider
being on a deserted island with a library of all the books ever written
(including manuscripts, etc.) and the lifespan to read it all: it's both an
exhilarating and frightening thought. The library as a prison of the mind,
trapped in other people's thoughts. For a writer the best book is the
unwritten one, e.g. the blank book that Winston Smith cherishes in _1984_.

~~~
lainga
That sounds like Borges' Library of Babel.

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cafard
Manguel's _The Library of Night_ is worth a look, as is _The Phantoms on the
Bookshelves_ by Jacques Bonnet. And if you go to the University of Chicago
Press web site, the month's free ebook is _The Palace of Books_ by Roger
Grenier.

~~~
Jun8
Thanks for the link, I jumped at this, but, alas, they require one to create
an Adobe ID and use Adobe Digital Editions.

~~~
cafard
Yes, I haven't got around to reading it. Oh, well.

