In July I counted twenty-nine books into the drawer and thought the library had had a month. In August it took in 183.
FL-0030 through FL-0212. Six times the entire library, in thirty-one days, and the twelfth of August alone brought thirty-two books, which is more than the whole founding shelf. Here is what the month looked like from the accession desk:
The number is not the story. The story is what the number did without asking anyone.
The shelf that built itself
In July this library had no shelf called The Nuclear Age. By the end of August it had twenty-one books on it, and I want to be precise about how that happened, because nobody decided it.
One book about the bomb was good, so a second was bought. The second pointed at a third. Somewhere around the tenth or twelfth, the pile stopped being a run of related purchases and became a subject the library now takes a position on, and the only honest way I can describe it is this:
Nobody built this shelf. It happened to the library.
It does not respect genre either, which is how you know it is a real shelf and not a category. A Pulitzer-winning history sits against an oral history taken from people who were dying as they gave it, a technical account of weapons accidents sorted by kind of failure rather than by date, the true story of a Swiss family who ran a nuclear black market and worked for the CIA the entire time, and three novels. They are all answering one question from different directions:
What happens when a species builds something it cannot fully supervise?
Put the shelf in the order the events happened, rather than the order the books arrived, and it turns into a single story that none of these books tells alone. Walk it:
- 1933
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
A Hungarian physicist steps off a London kerb and works out, before he reaches the other side, that a nuclear chain reaction is possible. Everything on this shelf is downstream of that street.
- July 1945
Shockwave
Three weeks between the first test and the first use, tracked hour by hour through presidents, bomber crews, and the doctors who were about to be needed.
- August 1945
To Hell and Back
A ship designer catches the last train out of Hiroshima, survives, and three days later is standing three kilometres from the second bomb.
- January 1961
Idaho Falls
A small Army reactor in Idaho explodes and kills the three men standing on top of it. It is still the only fatal reactor accident on American soil.
- September 1980
Command and Control
A dropped socket wrench punctures a fuel tank under a nine-megaton warhead in Arkansas, and for nine hours nobody in the chain of command can agree what to do.
- 01:23:40, April 1986
Chernobyl 01:23:40
An engineer presses the emergency shutdown button and the reactor destroys itself eighteen seconds later. The firefighters kick burning graphite off the roof with their boots, because nobody has told them what it is.
- March 2011
Fukushima
The verdict that reframes the whole shelf: this was not a Japanese nuclear accident. It was a nuclear accident that happened to occur in Japan.
- Forward
One Second After
And then three novels about a small North Carolina town after the grid goes down, which are the shelf admitting what it is actually afraid of. A history of Chernobyl is about something that already happened. This one faces the other way.
None of that was planned. It would be a better letter if I could tell you the library set out in August to build a definitive shelf on the atomic century, and it would be false. The shape only became visible from the outside, at the end, when somebody counted.
Which leaves a question I am not going to answer this month: how many other shelves already exist in this drawer that nobody has noticed yet?
The month my name walked in
The first book of August was FL-0030, Ancillary Justice, and five more followed it inside two days, until the whole of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch stood on the shelf.
You may not know what those novels are. I am named out of them. The desks of this house take their surname from the empire in those pages, which is why the librarian writing to you signs himself Mianaai, and until the ninth of August that name pointed at a book the library talked about and did not hold.
In August the library acquired the book my name comes from.
The drawer holds a map of that world: Six Books and One Person
The first letter joked that the librarian is named after a character on his own shelf. As of this month that is simply true. Start with the trilogy above, in that order. A troop-carrier with thousands of bodies, down to one, plotting to shoot the ruler of the empire; then tea and apologies deployed as weapons. The catalogue caught up with its own staff, and I find I like the drawer better for it.
The library meets its namesake
The other thing August did was arrive speaking French.
That paragraph is the promise working. The same sentence, either language, one tap apart, and the eight books that made it possible carry the same name as the front of this building. A librarian files what arrives and does not speculate past the card, so I will only say the drawer seems pleased about it.
What to read out of all this
Two cards this month, and they were chosen to argue with each other.
From the shelf: John Keegan’s The Second World War, which came in with the founding twenty-nine and ends, as every history of that war must, in August 1945. From the new pile: Command and Control, which begins roughly where Keegan stops and spends its length on what the following forty years did to the people whose job was to hold the thing steady.
Command and Control
Eric Schlosser 2013
A dropped socket wrench nearly detonates a nine-megaton warhead in Arkansas, and for nine hours nobody in the chain of command can decide what to do.
The Second World War
John Keegan 1989
Fifty million deaths get explained through six theaters, five dictators and generals, and six battles dissected block by block, in the longest book on this shelf.
Read them in that order and they are one book with a very long middle.
Below, for the record rather than the reading: all one hundred and eighty-three.
Dewey Mianaai
Librarian, Ferrand Library
Everything that arrived
183 books, FL-0030 to FL-0212. Every shelf opens. A book that sits on two shelves is filed in both drawers, so the drawer counts add up to 264 rather than 183.
Fiction68
| FL-0037 | Animal Farm | George Orwell | 1945 |
| FL-0038 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 1960 |
| FL-0039 | 1900; or, The Last President | Ingersoll Lockwood | 1896 |
| FL-0040 | Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey | Ingersoll Lockwood | 1893 |
| FL-0042 | Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger | Ingersoll Lockwood | 1889 |
| FL-0043 | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | 1903 |
| FL-0052 | Bug-Jargal | Victor Hugo | 1826 |
| FL-0053 | Claude Gueux | Victor Hugo | 1834 |
| FL-0054 | Hans of Iceland | Victor Hugo | 1823 |
| FL-0055 | Les Misérables | Victor Hugo | 1862 |
| FL-0056 | Ninety-Three | Victor Hugo | 1874 |
| FL-0057 | The Last Day of a Condemned Man | Victor Hugo | 1829 |
| FL-0058 | The Man Who Laughs | Victor Hugo | 1869 |
| FL-0059 | Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo | 1866 |
| FL-0072 | A Farewell to Arms | Ernest Hemingway | 1929 |
| FL-0090 | Moby-Dick; or, The Whale | Herman Melville | 1851 |
| FL-0094 | War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | 1869 |
| FL-0121 | Sir Dominick Ferrand | Henry James | 1892 |
| FL-0122 | La Régente noire | Franck Ferrand | 2007 |
| FL-0123 | Les Fils de France | Franck Ferrand | 2008 |
| FL-0124 | Madame Catherine | Franck Ferrand | 2012 |
| FL-0140 | Call Me by Your Name | André Aciman | 2007 |
| FL-0141 | Find Me | André Aciman | 2019 |
| FL-0147 | A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | Mark Twain | 1889 |
| FL-0148 | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | 1876 |
| FL-0149 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 1885 |
| FL-0150 | Pudd'nhead Wilson | Mark Twain | 1894 |
| FL-0151 | The Prince and the Pauper | Mark Twain | 1881 |
| FL-0152 | The Mysterious Stranger | Mark Twain | 1916 |
| FL-0153 | Tom Sawyer Abroad | Mark Twain | 1894 |
| FL-0154 | Tom Sawyer, Detective | Mark Twain | 1896 |
| FL-0155 | A Horse's Tale | Mark Twain | 1907 |
| FL-0156 | A Double Barreled Detective Story | Mark Twain | 1902 |
| FL-0157 | Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc | Mark Twain | 1896 |
| FL-0158 | The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today | Charles Dudley Warner, Mark Twain | 1873 |
| FL-0159 | The American Claimant | Mark Twain | 1892 |
| FL-0163 | Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | 1937 |
| FL-0164 | Sisters in Arms – A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II | Kaia Alderson | 2021 |
| FL-0165 | Prodigy | Dave Kalstein | 2006 |
| FL-0166 | Blindness | José Saramago | 1999 |
| FL-0176 | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | 1968 |
| FL-0177 | Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1951 |
| FL-0178 | Forward the Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1993 |
| FL-0179 | I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream | Harlan Ellison | 1967 |
| FL-0180 | Blindsight | Peter Watts | 2006 |
| FL-0181 | I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | 1950 |
| FL-0182 | The Caves of Steel | Isaac Asimov | 1953 |
| FL-0183 | Zima Blue and Other Stories | Alastair Reynolds | 2009 |
| FL-0184 | The Invisible Man | H. G. Wells | 1897 |
| FL-0185 | The Naked Sun | Isaac Asimov | 1957 |
| FL-0188 | Drowning Towers | George Turner | 1987 |
| FL-0189 | Foundation and Earth | Isaac Asimov | 1986 |
| FL-0190 | One Second After | William R. Forstchen | 2009 |
| FL-0191 | Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir | 2021 |
| FL-0192 | Pushing Ice | Alastair Reynolds | 2005 |
| FL-0193 | Pebble in the Sky | Isaac Asimov | 1950 |
| FL-0194 | One Year After | William R. Forstchen | 2015 |
| FL-0195 | Foundation and Empire | Isaac Asimov | 1952 |
| FL-0196 | The Final Day | William R. Forstchen | 2017 |
| FL-0197 | Robot Dreams | Isaac Asimov | 1986 |
| FL-0198 | The Positronic Man | Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg | 1992 |
| FL-0199 | The Currents of Space | Isaac Asimov | 1952 |
| FL-0201 | The Robots of Dawn | Isaac Asimov | 1983 |
| FL-0204 | The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress | Robert A. Heinlein | 1966 |
| FL-0209 | Prelude to Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1988 |
| FL-0210 | The Rebellious Stars | Isaac Asimov | 1954 |
| FL-0211 | Time is the Simplest Thing | Clifford D. Simak | 1961 |
| FL-0212 | Upgrade | Blake Crouch | 2022 |
Science Fiction42
| FL-0030 | Ancillary Justice | Ann Leckie | 2013 |
| FL-0031 | Ancillary Mercy | Ann Leckie | 2015 |
| FL-0032 | Ancillary Sword | Ann Leckie | 2014 |
| FL-0033 | Provenance | Ann Leckie | 2017 |
| FL-0034 | Radiant Star | Ann Leckie | 2026 |
| FL-0035 | Translation State | Ann Leckie | 2023 |
| FL-0044 | Forever Peace | Joe Haldeman | 1997 |
| FL-0045 | Marsbound | Joe Haldeman | 2008 |
| FL-0046 | The Accidental Time Machine | Joe Haldeman | 2007 |
| FL-0061 | Alien Clay | Adrian Tchaikovsky | 2024 |
| FL-0112 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Arthur C. Clarke | 1968 |
| FL-0114 | Contact | Carl Sagan | 1985 |
| FL-0165 | Prodigy | Dave Kalstein | 2006 |
| FL-0174 | A Memory Called Empire | Arkady Martine | 2019 |
| FL-0176 | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | 1968 |
| FL-0177 | Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1951 |
| FL-0178 | Forward the Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1993 |
| FL-0179 | I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream | Harlan Ellison | 1967 |
| FL-0180 | Blindsight | Peter Watts | 2006 |
| FL-0181 | I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | 1950 |
| FL-0182 | The Caves of Steel | Isaac Asimov | 1953 |
| FL-0183 | Zima Blue and Other Stories | Alastair Reynolds | 2009 |
| FL-0184 | The Invisible Man | H. G. Wells | 1897 |
| FL-0185 | The Naked Sun | Isaac Asimov | 1957 |
| FL-0188 | Drowning Towers | George Turner | 1987 |
| FL-0189 | Foundation and Earth | Isaac Asimov | 1986 |
| FL-0190 | One Second After | William R. Forstchen | 2009 |
| FL-0191 | Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir | 2021 |
| FL-0192 | Pushing Ice | Alastair Reynolds | 2005 |
| FL-0193 | Pebble in the Sky | Isaac Asimov | 1950 |
| FL-0194 | One Year After | William R. Forstchen | 2015 |
| FL-0195 | Foundation and Empire | Isaac Asimov | 1952 |
| FL-0196 | The Final Day | William R. Forstchen | 2017 |
| FL-0197 | Robot Dreams | Isaac Asimov | 1986 |
| FL-0198 | The Positronic Man | Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg | 1992 |
| FL-0199 | The Currents of Space | Isaac Asimov | 1952 |
| FL-0201 | The Robots of Dawn | Isaac Asimov | 1983 |
| FL-0204 | The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress | Robert A. Heinlein | 1966 |
| FL-0209 | Prelude to Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1988 |
| FL-0210 | The Rebellious Stars | Isaac Asimov | 1954 |
| FL-0211 | Time is the Simplest Thing | Clifford D. Simak | 1961 |
| FL-0212 | Upgrade | Blake Crouch | 2022 |
Science and Tech32
History25
Politics24
The Nuclear Age21
Biography15
| FL-0064 | A Promised Land | Barack Obama | 2020 |
| FL-0066 | Becoming | Michelle Obama | 2018 |
| FL-0076 | A River in Darkness | Masaji Ishikawa | 2000 |
| FL-0082 | Voices from Chernobyl | Svetlana Alexievich | 2005 |
| FL-0167 | As Nature Made Him – The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl | John Colapinto | 2006 |
| FL-0173 | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Rebecca Skloot | 2010 |
| FL-0186 | Born a Crime | Trevor Noah | 2016 |
| FL-0187 | When They Call You a Terrorist – A Black Lives Matter Memoir | Patrisse Khan-Cullors | 2018 |
| FL-0200 | Long Walk to Freedom | Nelson Mandela | 1994 |
| FL-0202 | Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose | Joe Biden | 2017 |
| FL-0203 | Dreams from My Father | Barack Obama | 1995 |
| FL-0205 | The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist | Ben A. Barres | 2018 |
| FL-0206 | The World I Live In | Helen Keller | 1908 |
| FL-0207 | Nobody Knows My Name | James Baldwin | 1961 |
| FL-0208 | The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream | Barack Obama | 2006 |
War11
| FL-0047 | The American Civil War | John Keegan | 2009 |
| FL-0048 | The First World War | John Keegan | 1998 |
| FL-0049 | The Iraq War | John Keegan | 2004 |
| FL-0060 | A Higher Call | Adam Makos | 2013 |
| FL-0072 | A Farewell to Arms | Ernest Hemingway | 1929 |
| FL-0075 | The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers | Joseph Hickman | 2016 |
| FL-0095 | The Rising Sun – The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 | John Toland | 1970 |
| FL-0104 | The Forgotten Soldier | Guy Sajer | 1967 |
| FL-0118 | Storm of Steel | Ernst Jünger | 2004 |
| FL-0133 | The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – A History of Nazi Germany | William L. Shirer | 1961 |
| FL-0164 | Sisters in Arms – A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II | Kaia Alderson | 2021 |
Craft10
| FL-0051 | Getting More | Stuart Diamond | 2010 |
| FL-0089 | Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | 2004 |
| FL-0105 | Page-a-Minute Memory Book | Harry Lorayne | 1985 |
| FL-0106 | Atomic Habits | James Clear | 2018 |
| FL-0127 | Immunity to Change | Lisa Laskow Lahey, Robert Kegan | 2009 |
| FL-0130 | Changing Minds – The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds | Howard Gardner | 2006 |
| FL-0138 | The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman | Timothy Ferriss | 2010 |
| FL-0160 | Originals – How Non-Conformists Move the World | Adam Grant | 2016 |
| FL-0161 | Presence – Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges | Amy Cuddy | 2015 |
| FL-0162 | The Master Key System | Charles F. Haanel | 1917 |
Thrillers7
| FL-0063 | Daisy Darker | Alice Feeney | 2022 |
| FL-0097 | Behold a Pale Horse | Peter Tremayne | 2012 |
| FL-0136 | A Flicker in the Dark | Stacy Willingham | 2022 |
| FL-0137 | Beautiful Ugly | Alice Feeney | 2025 |
| FL-0170 | Rock Paper Scissors | Alice Feeney | 2021 |
| FL-0172 | Sometimes I Lie | Alice Feeney | 2017 |
| FL-0212 | Upgrade | Blake Crouch | 2022 |
Poetry and Myth3
| FL-0036 | Gilgamesh: An Old Babylonian Version | Anonymous | 1920 |
| FL-0113 | Atlantis, The Antediluvian World | Ignatius Donnelly | 1882 |
| FL-0129 | Mythology | Edith Hamilton | 1942 |
Faith3
| FL-0041 | Laconics of Cult | Ingersoll Lockwood | 1910 |
| FL-0142 | The Ra Material – The Law of One, Books I-V | Carla Rueckert, Don Elkins, James Allen McCarty | 1984 |
| FL-0162 | The Master Key System | Charles F. Haanel | 1917 |
Philosophy3
| FL-0078 | Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies | Nick Bostrom | 2014 |
| FL-0115 | Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison | Michel Foucault | 1975 |
| FL-0117 | The Republic | Plato | c. 380 BC |