Remember the Library?
The best part of being in England was all the traveling I did by myself. Now that I’m back, I’ve decided that its silly to be so comfortable in my own city that I don’t go out and explore alone. On a weekend day recently I found myself with a whole afternoon with nothing planned. Instead of doing something new, I decided I would try something old.
When was the last time you went to the public library?
This is my local library. Interestingly, I actually named this branch. I know, its a boring name, but it was mine. I also rode on an antique fire engine at the dedication of this branch when I was about 15 years old. I can’t believe it took me this long to go back to my library.
Public libraries these days suffer at the hands of the Internet in that there is less urgency to replace the old with the new, so I had a hard time finding any up-to-date books on what I went there looking for. I wasn’t surprised to walk into the library and see every single computer being used. What I was surprised to see were all the people milling in the bookshelves. A lot of people. And more wonderfully, most of them were parents encouraging their children to find an interesting book to take home. Is that even possible?
I guess I just assumed that these days most parents thought it was easier to stick a video game controler in their kids’ hands than to actually encourage them to expand their minds. But here I was, sitting in my library, watching kids who were excited about books. Kids who wanted to sit down right then and there and start reading. Kids dragging their parents to the checkout counter so they could hurry home with their treasures.
While I didn’t get much reading done myself, I know that from now on when I have an empty day I’ll think about going to the library. Sitting in a comfy old chair watching book lovers and book lovers in training over the top of my book is better than a chain coffee house that uses burnt coffee beans and hard chairs any day.
