The New Yorker,
London Review of Books,
The London Times, and
The New York Times to decide which fiction should be ordered. Fiction accounts for fully a quarter of the forty-eight hundred books the library acquires each year. There are standing orders for certain novelistsâMartin Amis, Zadie Smith, Toni Morrison, for example. Some popular writers merit standing orders for more than one copy.
But first novels and collections of stories present a problem. McGuirl and his two assistants try to guess what the members of the library will want to read. Of course, they respond to membersâ requests. If a book is requested by three people, the staff orders it. Thereâs also a committee of members that meets monthly to recommend books for purchase. The committee checks on the librariansâ lists and suggests titles theyâve missed. The whole enterprise balances enthusiasm and skepticism.