Peter Gainsford går igenom kvarhängande och under seklerna självförstärkande myter om det antika biblioteket i Alexandra. Huvudpoängen är att det som huserades i Alexandria knappast var unikt. Det var däremot det som fanns vid nationalmuseet i Rio de Janeiro, som brann 2018:
The fire at the National Museum of Brazil in 2018 destroyed mountains of unique recordings of indigenous languages, irreplaceable archives of extinct languages, and physical artefacts. When a copy of a book gets burned, it can always be replaced if people care. But much of what was lost that day was lost for good. The fire of Rio de Janeiro was far more destructive than the incidents at Baghdad or Alexandria.