Where the Books Are

摘要

They are what angkor wat is to Cambodia, or Disney World to America: the very souls of their countries, rendered in glass, wood and brick. In Paris, the Biblio-theque Nationale de France—four towers at the corners of a vast plaza-opened last winter with an exhibition whose title ("All the World's Knowledge") suggests that whatever library might occupy second place, you don't need to know about it. And in London, passersby can at last glimpse the shape of the British Library, whose architecture Prince Charles once famously likened to an academy for secret police. It is the most expensive building in Britain and its foremost monument to the national pastime of muddling through. Or it will be, if it's ever finished.