In the stacks : short stories about libraries and librarians

An anthology of short stories in defence of reading by some of the greatest practioners of the genre, including Isaac Babel, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Alice Munro, Lori Moore and H.H.

Munro (Saki); In The Stacks, by America's leading librarian, is a volume of most unusual stories about that most evocative place: the library.

Libraries are created worlds containing row upon row of shelves holding miles and miles of books.

For many writers and bookworms the local public library was the portal the imagination first stepped across.

In one volume, the cream of twentieth century short fiction - from Borges's 'The Library of Babel' to John Cheever's 'Trouble of Marcie Flint' to Lorrie Moore's 'Community Life' - about libraries and librarians, and the terrors and pleasures contained in books.

Lunacy, love, obsession and the joy of reading are all gathered together in a volume most would agree is long overdue.