i recently spoke with bbc reporter mike thomson, author of the book "syria's secret library: reading and redemption in a town under siege," which is coming out this tuesday. the idea of people risking their lives to somaehow creat secret library, tell me, first of all, at did ts liberia look like? how did it survive while there were bombs dropping around it. >> well, it was a basement, harhari, so buried beneath the surface of the ground.n it had beein a building half destroyed, in an area almostoy totally des, that was picked deliberately, because it would look from above as if there was nothing lefto bomb. >> sreenivasan: so, where did the books come from? >> the bos came from abandoned houses, bombed houses and some bombed office buildings. and this group of young people behind it all, most of them former university students, had thought to themselves, "look, instead of just sitting here waiting to die and extremely hungry," as they were under siege, "let's go and rescue books we have heard about that are lying abandoned in buildings and getting ruined by the weather." it's after