In his book 'The Library at Night', Alberto Manguel explores the secret of humanity's passion for reading, which may not necessarily lead to knowledge and often manifests as the hobby of book collecting. He argues that libraries remain great places for reading. With perplexing optimism, we continue to amass every scrap of information we can gather—in scrolls, books, and computer disks, on shelf after shelf of the library, whether physical, virtual, or otherwise—in a poignant effort to impose some form of sense and order on the world. All the while, we are well aware, however much we wish to believe otherwise, that our endeavor is unfortunately doomed to fail.

Since our interest in the precise narration of dates and names is less than our boundless fascination with collecting, Manguel decided to start writing not to chronicle another history of libraries or to add another volume to the terrifyingly vast field of library science, but simply to record the chronicles of his own amazement. Manguel said: 'Libraries, my own or the public ones I share with a multitude of readers, have always seemed to me delightfully mad places. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by their thorny logic, which suggests that reason governs the dissonant arrangement of books. I feel the thrill of adventure when I lose myself amidst the crowded stacks, believing with a superstitious faith that the established hierarchy of letters and numbers will one day lead me to a promised destination...'

The love of libraries, like most loves, must be learned. No one steps into a room full of books for the first time and instinctively knows how to act, what to expect, what they will gain, or what is available. One can be terrified by the chaos, the vastness, the silence, the surveillance, and the reminder that one does not know everything. Remnants of these overwhelming feelings linger, even after the rituals and traditions become familiar, the geography is revealed, and the wild tribes are tamed.

• Author: Alberto Manguel
• Publisher: Dar Al-Mada for Culture and Publishing - Baghdad
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Number of Pages: 268
• Binding: Paperback
• ISBN: 9782843061370