Books Do Furnish . . .

The Library at Night, by Alberto Manguel (Yale, 384 pp., $27.50)

EVERYBODY is the butt of at least one family joke. The one repeated at my expense has it that one day, soon after I got my driver’s license, my older brother, by then in his twenties-and a much cooler guy than I would ever be-remarked with exasperation to my mother, “I would let Tracy borrow my car to go out and meet a girl somewhere, but I’m afraid he would just take it to the library.” The line cuts two ways. No doubt a self-respecting dude like him probably didn’t want to risk his legion of friends spotting his sporty Camaro parked near the local library. But the larger laughing point is that I was too studious for my own good. While I suspect the first point to be true, I happen to know the second is not.

About the Author

Tracy Lee Simmons

Tracy Lee Simmons is the author of Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin.

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The Library at Night, by Alberto Manguel (Yale, 384 pp., $27.50)

EVERYBODY is the butt of at least one family joke. The one repeated at my expense has it that one day, soon after I got my driver’s license, my older brother, by then in his twenties-and a much cooler guy than I would ever be-remarked with exasperation to my mother, “I would let Tracy borrow my car to go out and meet a girl somewhere, but I’m afraid he would just take it to the library.” The line cuts two ways. No doubt a self-respecting dude like him probably didn’t want to risk his legion of friends spotting his sporty Camaro parked near the local library. But the larger laughing point is that I was too studious for my own good. While I suspect the first point to be true, I happen to know the second is not.