The Historian

I'm getting ready to perform my annual ritual of creating a list of all the books read for the past year. Will I finish The Historian in time (currently on page 253 of 642)? This book is rich in library settings. Some passages related to library as place that I particularly like:

"My favorite bench in the nave of the old university library was still being warmed by the last sun of a spring afternoon. Around me three or four students read or talked in low voices, and I felt the familiar calm of that scholar's haven soak through my bones. The great hall of the library was pierced by colored windows, some of which looked into its reading rooms and cloisterlike corridors and courtyards, so that I could see people moving around inside or outside, or studying at big oak tables." (p. 49)

"...I read Dracula sitting in a slippery chair by a library window. If I peered outside, I could see one of my favorite canals, the Singel, with its flower market, and people buying snacks from a little stand. It was a wonderfully secluded spot, and the back of a bookshelf sheltered me from the other readers in the room." (p. 55)

"The circulation desk stood where the altar would have in a real cathedral, under a mural of Our Lady - of Knowledge, presumably - in sky blue robes, her arms full of heavenly tomes. Checking out a book there had all the sanctity of taking communion." (p. 115)