Library
Story Stream
Why Libraries Need Librarians November 14, 2024
People do indeed seem to find librarians oddly mysterious! In August, Western Illinois University laid off its entire librarian faculty and at the same time insisted the university would still have “adequate coverage in the library.” The school seeme...
The Sun Also Sets November 13, 2024
The Library of America is something of a publishing curiosity. Its declared aim is to preserve America’s literary heritage “by publishing, and keeping in print, authoritative editions of America’s best and most significant writing.” Yet, unlike those...
Home Libraries Will Save Civilization October 10, 2024
Multiple recent stories offered more signs of what I consider to be an unfolding civilizational decline. First, a student in Hartford, CT, who had attended local public schools from age six, graduated from high school without knowing how to read or w...
A Book Critic Goes to Dublin October 03, 2024
This summer, my wife, Cree, and I went to Dublin to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We chose it over more exotic destinations because it made sense to us: I’m a book critic and she’s a writer. How could we not go to Dublin, perhaps the most l...
Two Cheers for Brutalism October 01, 2024
A few years ago, I attended a lecture in which a learned professor complained that American universities are obsessed with ugly buildings. To illustrate his point, he used an example well known to those who traffic in sociology via architectural cri...
Fixer Upper: Larry McMurtry’s Library March 01, 2024
Everybody in the New Wave–nostalgia hotel has their phones out, which makes me pretty much like everybody else. After breezing past the lobby desk, I peek around: slate colors, fresh leather. There are scented candles burning somewhere. There’s a cof...
