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Histories of libraries have been written and published, some as general accounts and histories, and others highly focused, but none as wide-ranging and intellectually absorbing as I The Library: A Fragile History i . As a sweeping history, the efficacious scholarly apparatus of notes and bibliographic information makes I The Library: A Fragile History i an even more effective and instrumental history for historians of the library, book, and reading cultures. The definitional conundrum of libraries without books, professed by some in the library establishment, squarely situate the precarious nature of constant vigilance and existential concern for relevance, further illustrates the library as vexed and perplexing, a paradoxical arena. [Extracted from the article]