Ali Smith is always interesting, engaging, passionate and entertaining. The unifying theme of this collection is libraries, why they still matter and why we should fight for their survival. It consists of stories interleaved with thoughts garnered from various writers and other friends about their experiences of libraries. Smith's own stories are fascinating - often light on conventional plot but full of intriguing insights and connections, largely about the lives of other writers and poets, but...

4.5 starsAs other reviewers have noted, there is no story called "Public library" in this collection. Yet every story is prefaced by comments about public libraries that together could be taken as a 'story' called "Public library." These prefaces consist of stories that others told Ali Smith of past library experiences, reminiscences that become mixed with warnings of what will be lost due to the impending demise of public library systems in Great Britain. I came to feel that the 'missing' "Publ...

I've never read anything by Ali Smith, so I feel like I had to spend some time adjusting my brain to her writing, to her whimsical thought processes. Once I did, Public Library and Other stories really worked for me. This collection of stories is held together by Smith's love of libraries, books and words. Between each story, Smith recounts impressions she has collected from others about the role public libraries have played in their lives -- including an odd anecdote by Miriam Toews about an ex...

Another Ali Smith book which shows her love of words - their meanings, derivations, and sounds.The stories in Public Libraries and Other Stories are full of things/subjects: a disabled woman trapped on a train, Katherine Mansfield, families - especially fathers, credit card identity theft, searching for "elsewhere", D.H. Lawrence's ashes, Dusty Springfield, Olive Fraser, an obscure (to me when I read the story, anyway, though she won't be any longer) Scottish poet - http://www.scottishpoetrylibr...

Scattered PagesPublic Library. That's "Public Library" with a strikeout through it, because the motivation behind Ali Smith's collection is to protest a recent spate of library closures in Great Britain that shows no sign of stopping. She herself has contributed ten stories, loosely connected by the themes of writing and reading. In between are short letters from her friends (names like Kate Atkinson, Helen Oyeyemi, and Kamila Shamsie) about the importance of libraries in their childhoods. Brief...

I don't often stop reading a book, especially when it is on a topic of which I am passionate, libraries. However this time I simply had to stop. I truly wanted to like this book. In fact I was so excited when I read the description I wanted to start reading it immediately. I felt the stories started with a public library connection then went off on a variety of tangents. At times I would read multiple pages and then have to go back to make sure I had not skipped pages.Although others reviews and...

3.5*I realized I could say anything to this person and she wouldn’t be able to hear; I realized that unless she could lip-read she’d not know what I was saying. I could ask her what had happened to her, why and how she was in a wheelchair. I could recite the whole of Kubla Khan by Coleridge, or tell her all about Theseus and Ariadne, and she’d have to listen, while not listening at all, obviously. It had the makings of the perfect relationship.(from "Last")I was looking forward to when this book...

I thought it only appropriate that this should be my first borrowing from the local public library. all credit to them, working under lockdown conditions and yet still providing a sterling service.

I loved everything about this collection of short stories, from its cover image (a film still from Godard's 1967 film, La Chinoise), to the twelve individual stories, each a luminous gem. Ali Smith believes we are what we read, and anyone who reads Ali Smith will identify with her passion for words, literature, language, libraries, and traveling out of everyday life to unexpected places through short stories. Highly recommended, and an ideal introduction for anyone new to Ali Smith.

This collection of short stories, and reminiscences about what libraries mean to various people, is both an enjoyable read and an important reminder of how library services are being eroded. I am, by any definition, a bookworm and I have also been a librarian, so obviously this book will strike a chord with me. Although, in this time of financial austerity, cuts need to be made, it is obvious that libraries – once lost – will not return. Yes, some can be run by enthusiastic volunteers, but this

I loved Autumn and Winter by Ali Smith.I've had this for a while, I'm glad I finally got around to finishing it.This collection of stories is quite eclectic. The stories are interspersed with different people's thoughts on the role the libraries played and still play in their lives. Apparently, the number of UK library closures is staggering. It made me think about the libraries in my area - they've all undergone major renovations and upgrades, so I guess, we are lucky in Perth, Western Australi...

One of the main things that struck me about Public Library is that nothing in it is superfluous. Every word, every detail, is there for a reason, and every time I finished a story I had a strong feeling that if I went back and really studied it, I'd find all sorts of connections on all sorts of levels. Every story was like a poem in that way, except that instead of 20 lines you had 10-20 pages, so each one was its own bright immersive world of interconnectedness. This might make it sound overly

The second line in this collection immediately invited me in: “Here’s a true story. Simon, my editor, and I had been meeting to talk about how to put together this book you’re reading right now.” Well, she’s talking to me, so my ears perk up. And so she tells me about how her and Simon came across a building with a big sign — “LIBRARY” — but it didn’t look like a library. Needs to be explored then, doesn’t it. So in they go, and it’s not a library, it’s a name for a private club and wellness hub...

DNF - I found the style of writing difficult and had to keep re reading sentences. I also didn’t find the short stories particularly interesting and so stopped forcing myself to read it after around 20%

We’re getting to a point where a library isn’t a library anymore. As Ali Smith humorously discovers in the opening of her new book of short stories, a building in central London marked library is now more likely to be a private members’ club that is focused on lists of cocktails rather than sharing literature. Despite the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act in the UK which states local councils are under a legal obligation to provide library services, over ten percent of the libraries in this