Running the Books by Avi Steinberg

The adventures of an accidental prison librarian.
A Jewish 20 year old takes a job as a prison librarian and balances his psyche with prison guards and inmates.
"After two years, I was still trying to figure out the purpose of my job and the library at large.  For this I only had to take Elia's example.  He wasn't merely counting the days with each book.  His elegant librarianship, his hands deliberating over each title, the gentle way that he dusted and kept notes and piles, the care with which he arranged the shelves, his silence, made me appreciate how order is created:  No through grand schemes-- to which I was often drawn-- but by small graceful actions, repeated often and refined with time.  Page 378