"I had heard this book was about the L.A. library fire, but it's actually a book about libraries as seen through the lens of the library fire. Except when it's not. Some of the digressions are fascinating (all about arsonists and the nature of fire itself) and some are not (the extended lives of the library directors and the man-who-would-not-be-the-arsonist). As with Susan Orlean's other book, The Orchid Thief, you have to take each chapter for what it is and let it go where it will. I generally prefer a clearer structure, but even so I learned a lot from this book and I'm glad I read it."