Packing My Library

An Elegy and Ten Digressions

By: Alberto Manguel

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

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

Great Bookish Essays with a Classicist Bent

Excellent, Thoughtful essays by a poet. Beautiful prose with incorporation of poetry and the classics.

Great book, monotone Reader

Struggled to finish just because the reader has this boring monotone lecture voice the entire time and found myself zoning out and needing to rewind. But he was easy to understand.