No Better Place than the Library to Inspire Douglas Westerbeke

You may know Douglas Westerbeke as the author of the bestselling novel A Short Walk Through a Wide World, published by Avid Reader Press in April 2024. But before he became an author, he worked in the literature department of the Cleveland Public Library, one of the largest libraries in the United States.

“I had access to all the fiction, biographies, poetry, plays, graphic novels, and all kinds of analysis from Shakespeare to Watchmen. I suppose it was technically research but really it was pure pleasure,” Westerbeke tells us. “I read it for fun, out of curiosity, long before I had any plans to be a novelist. It’s unlikely I’d have ever written a novel if I hadn’t been spending so much time at the library. It changed my life trajectory, just by its very existence.”

Libraries have always been a place of discovery for Westerbeke. When he was growing up in Massachusetts, he became interested in classical music. In a burst of curiosity, he visited the Milton Public Library to check out albums of composers he’d never heard before — and fell in love with the music of Manuel de Falla, Leoš Janáček, and Aram Khachaturian, among others.

“Years later, I worked at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,” Westerbeke remembers. “I married a violinist and I compose quite a lot in my free time.”

After he moved to Los Angeles, he visited the library there to research stories. The same was true after he moved to Cleveland, which inspired him to get a job there.

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“Once I was living and breathing the place, there was no stopping me,” he tells us. “I read and researched constantly. I listened to new music constantly. I had access to books, magazines, [and] music. It was life-changing.”

Some novelists find doing research for their books daunting. But Westerbeke found that using libraries for research helped him to keep curiosity at the forefront of his process and delight in the moments of serendipity.

“I was writing the middle part of A Short Walk that takes place in a palace in India, when an amazing book about colonial India landed on my desk, full of photographs taken by a court photographer with stories attached to them. I learned so much just when I needed to — how to describe the rooms, the hierarchy, the social mores, et cetera.”

We asked Westerbeke to tell us his favorite library, although we understand that it can sometimes feel like choosing a favorite child.

“Of course, I’m partial to the Cleveland Public Library,” he says. “It has one of the largest collections in the U.S. and is architecturally beautiful as well. I used to do tours of it so I know its history and all the architectural touches that went into it. I really love the design, both the old and the new.”

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He also cites the Seattle Public Library and the Toronto Public Library as other favorites and hopes to visit faraway libraries when he travels. “I would love to visit some of these ultra-modern libraries like the Tianjin Binhai Library near Beijing, or the Book Mountain in the Netherlands,” he tells us. “Then there are these ancient libraries that would be amazing to visit, like the Tripitaka Koreana Library in South Korea that looks like a scene right out of my novel. You walk into a place like that and immediately you start imagining stories.”

Westerbeke recommends that everyone spend quality time in libraries — you never know what surprises you might find if you rummage through books. “It’s almost addictive, but it’s one of the few addictions that can be good for you,” he says. “It’s an act of exploration, driven by a love of learning some people don’t even know they have, not until you actually step into one of these places and start poking around.”

With the rise of digital media, some patrons now enjoy a different kind of rummaging through books using apps like Libby or Hoopla. “The whole world is going to be changing dramatically over the next decade,” says Westerbeke. “The rise of technology is going to change how we retrieve information, who retrieves it for us, and is going to redirect our interests.”

He remembers how he used to check out music CDs from the library, while now he uses music apps through his local library. He also loves being able to listen to audiobooks from his phone. “It’s like carrying an infinite library in your pocket,” he says. “On the other hand, I don’t think libraries are going to physically disappear anytime soon.”

When recently visiting libraries in Seattle, Boston, and Helsinki, Westerbeke notes that they all seemed quite busy. “There’s something about holding an actual book in your hand,” he says. “There’s also something to getting out of your house and stepping into a place that feels communal — a library, a bookstore, a coffee shop — and maybe in the coming years we will decide we need more of that.”

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Westerbeke thinks librarians will become increasingly important in the future. “Massive unemployment is coming, displacement from AI and robotics. It’s coming fast and will be severe,” he predicts. “It’s hard to say exactly how society will react psychologically, but there may very well be an increased need for communal places like libraries.”

Libraries and bookstores have been important places for Westerbeke to meet some of his own readers. He would love to see more libraries around the country host book festivals and events. “Interviews can be fun and interesting, but I especially enjoy meeting people at book-signings,” he says. “The Columbus Metropolitan Library had a huge turnout this year for their annual book festival. Tens of thousands of people. I got to meet lots of people, including fans of my novel (which is always nice!).”

Westerbeke also finds libraries help him simultaneously focus and explore. “A lot of story ideas came from unexpected places, in subjects you never thought could be interesting,” he says.

“A problem we have today, with the advent of streaming, is that it becomes harder to expose ourselves to unexpected things. Back when there were only a handful of channels to watch, only a few movies playing in few movie theaters, only certain books on your bookshelf, we were almost forced to watch things we wouldn’t have chosen to. I remember watching movies like Doctor Zhivago or The Sea Hawk because there was nothing else on and falling in love. I read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett because it was sitting on my mom’s bedside table one day. You really don’t want to be stuck in your own world, which I’m afraid is a consequence of modern technology today. You really want to be open to unexpected inspirations. There’s no better place for that than in a library.”

Westerbeke has this advice for those looking for inspiration: “Read things you wouldn’t normally read. Listen to music you hadn’t considered before. Try a travel book to a place you’ve never wanted to visit, just to challenge your preconceptions. You have to keep yourself sharp and to open yourself up to little discoveries. Inspiration comes from everywhere if you let it.”