Remember when you were young and libraries held books that you just wanted to devour with your eyes? You would enter the library and the smell of the thousands of books would wash over you. You would find your book and use that weird stick thing to mark where you got it from, then curl up in a cozy corner and read at your leisure. (Please click that link—it took me so many Google attempts to find the video.)
Fast forward to right now. You might even be in a library as you read this. Is it cozy? Does it still give you a sense of wonder? If it’s Butler, the likely answer to that question is no. A more accurate answer is that your back hurts from being hunched over a copy of The Wealth of Nations or The Radical Reader. It doesn’t smell like books, but rather like old coffee and B.O.
