Packing My Library cover art

Packing My Library

An Elegy and Ten Digressions

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Packing My Library

By: Alberto Manguel
Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
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About this listen

In June 2015 Alberto Manguel prepared to leave his centuries-old village home in France's Loire Valley and reestablish himself in a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Packing up his enormous, 35,000 volume personal library, choosing which books to keep, store, or cast out, Manguel found himself in deep reverie on the nature of relationships between books and readers, books and collectors, order and disorder, memory and reading.

In this poignant and personal reevaluation of his life as a reader, the author illuminates the highly personal art of reading and affirms the vital role of public libraries. Manguel's musings range widely, from delightful reflections on the idiosyncrasies of book lovers to deeper analyses of historic and catastrophic book events, including the burning of ancient Alexandria's library and contemporary library lootings at the hands of ISIS. With insight and passion, the author underscores the universal centrality of books and their unique importance to a democratic, civilized, and engaged society.

©2018 Alberto Manguel (P)2018 Tantor Art & Literature Authors Essays Library & Museum Studies Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences Words, Language & Grammar Nonfiction

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Whilst this is a very interesting topic and Maguel takes us down some interesting discursive avenues, it is indeed usurped by the narrator… the dispassionate and - in fact - Robotic delivery is like a slow day on the 09:00 o’clock news. Id hate to be this guy’s grandchild when it’s time for a bedtime story 😂.

“Slinky Malinky was said to be a rascally cat … it is unknown at this time whether this was a slur or - in fact - a well deserved social designation. Mayhap he is a victim of his environs, subdued by endemic suburban humdrums.”

Read by a robot

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A very personal and humbling account of the authors love affair with his library. Enlightening and beautifully written.

Beautiful book

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i keep returning to this as i want to read it but the delivery is pompous and awful

unlistenable

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I had heard the abridged version of this on BBCR4. I couldn't wait to hear the full version here. Audible's version is such a disappointment. The narrator's voice is not for me and I gave up after a short listen. He sounds like a newsreader. A very cold reading. Very disappointed.

A great story not well read 😣

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