susan orlean

What's In Your Library?

What's In Your Library?

I heard the coolest saying recently.

It's from Senegal and is the polite way to refer to someone who has died. They say, “their library has burned.”

Those words made me think of my father who passed away in 2010. He had a wonderful mind and especially loved historic facts, classical music and details of New York City where he’d lived his entire life. Whenever I had to go someplace, I’d ask him how to get there and he’d instantly rattle off which highway, subway or bus to take. I think the public transit routes and roads were seared into his memory.