Please stop reading this for a minute and go add Susan Orlean’s “The Library Book” to whatever system you use for keeping track of books you should read.

What a joy to follow along two main threads throughout the book: Experiencing the general appreciation for the awesomeness of libraries in our society, and the mystery surrounding the 1986 massive fire at the Central Library in Los Angeles.

Orlean does a masterful job of expressing her own love libraries and pointing to the many things they do for our communities, along with describing the history of libraries in general and specifically how the Los Angeles system grew and adapted along with the city itself. I would happily read such history about just about any city.

“Books are a sort of cultural DNA, the code for who, as a society, we are, and what we know. All the wonders and failures, all the champions and villains, all the legends and ideas and revelations of a culture last forever in its books,” she writes.

Her style reminded me of Erik Larson’s among authors I’ve read in recent years with the way she recounts history that both informs and has a shape that makes you want to never put the book down. I often found myself frustrated that I reached my Metro stop and had to submit to sitting at my desk for 10 hours until I could dive back into the story on my return trip.

I don’t want to talk at all about the examination of the devastating library fire and the investigation into how it started. That would be taking all the fun out of a mystery. But regarding library fires in general, I now absolutely have something to check every time I go to a new library:

“Over the years, matches tossed in book return slots caused many fires. Perhaps a few people mistook the book return for a trash receptacle, but most people probably did it because they were compelled to do something stupid. These kinds of fires became so common that most libraries now have book drops separated from the main building, so if a fire breaks out in the drop, it will have nowhere to go.”

I’m writing this in a library, and I can confirm the book drop is quite far from the main section of the building. I don’t know if that’s intentional for fire-prevention purposes, but seems like a good best-practice.

I know it’s only my fourth read of the year, but I can’t imagine there will be many stronger contenders for my favorite one of 2020. I’m grateful to have had it recommended to me and I’m happy to pass that on to you.