Reading Rooms

Toth ( Blooming ) and Coughlan, ``an ardent library supporter,'' here assemble a diverting anthology of essays, stories, poems, memoirs and excerpts from novels, each in celebration of a great institution all too often taken for granted: the public library. In works by Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, E. B. White, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Kazin, Philip Roth and dozens of other notable American writers, we read of libraries large and small, their librarians and the readers, young and old, who use them. The pieces are alternately serious, humorous, fanciful, philosophical, but all are permeated with admiration for this wonderful institution. Among the most delightful selections are those that recall the enchantment children feel when they first discover the library. The book is a fitting paean to the magic of reading rooms everywhere. (Apr.)