Monday, August 18, 2014

The woman who went to the library and read every book on the shelf

Phyllis Rose's book about her extreme reading experiment, in which she tackled the entire contents of a shelf in a New York library, has won high praise, but are such 'bibliomemoirs' a sign of an increasingly superficial literary culture or vital guides for a public swamped by choice?

Phyllis Rose photographed last week at the New York Society Library
Phyllis Rose photographed last week at the New York Society Library by Mike McGregor for the Observer New Review.

In the summer of 2011, during the quieter days that followed hurricane Irene, the writer Phyllis Rose headed to the New York Society Library on the Upper East Side of the city in search of a 1936 novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Hurricane had been recommended by a friend who knew of her enthusiasm for the pair's earlier adventure story, Mutiny on the Bounty, and with the newspapers still carrying reports of the destruction caused by Irene, what better time to read it? Once it was in her hand, however, her enthusiasm for it began to trickle away. She had had enough of storms. The novel was duly returned to its space on the shelf.

The question was: what should she read instead? It goes without saying that she was spoilt for choice. The New York Society Library, founded in 1754 by a group of young men who believed its existence would help the city prosper, is a gloriously well-stocked institution (its reference room is open to all, but only members may take books home). George Washington borrowed books from it and so, later, did Truman Capote and Willa Cather. Its current home was built in 1917, with the result that it comes with more than a hint of gilded-age splendour. Rose considers this place of marble, murals and mahogany to be the cheapest luxury in New York.
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