{"product_id":"the-library-a-catalogue-of-wonders","title":"The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"\"Excellent . . . Tracks the history of that greatest of all cultural institutions.\" The Washington Post  Libraries are much more than mere collections of volumes. The best are magical  fabled places whose fame has become part of the cultural wealth they are designed to preserve. Some still exist today; some are lost  like those of Herculaneum and Alexandria; some have been sold or dispersed; and some never existed  such as those libraries imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien  Umberto Eco  and Jorge Luis Borges  among others.  Ancient libraries  grand baroque libraries  scientific libraries  memorial libraries  personal libraries  clandestine libraries: Stuart Kells tells the stories of their creators  their prizes  their secrets  and their fate. To research this book  Kells traveled around the world with his young family like modernday Library Tourists. Kells discovered that all the worlds libraries are connected in beautiful and complex ways  that in the history of libraries  fascinating patterns are created and repeated over centuries. More important  he learned that stories about libraries are stories about people  containing every possible human drama.  The Library is a fascinating and engaging exploration of libraries as places of beauty and wonder. Its a celebration of books as objects  a celebration of the anthropology and physicality of books and bookish space  and an account of the human side of these hallowed spaces by a leading and passionate bibliophile.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44946981093429,"sku":"ByrdShop_1640090207","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781640090200.jpg?v=1769975877","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-library-a-catalogue-of-wonders","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}