Oh public library, how I love thee.
I love the young, gangly teenagers who always hog the internet computers. I love the Sikh men at long tables, their laptops glowing and sometimes singing. I love the retired folks who doze in the sun near the newspapers. I love the students, huddled in their cubicles, at the back of the stacks. I love the children, coats askew, pushing and shoving at the check-out counter. I love the homeless man, large backpack at his feet, reading about dream analysis on a cold day. I love the librarians, especially the one from Rwanda who says 'nonante' for 'quatre-vingt-dix' and the other one who told me the movie I was taking out was a 'turnip'.
I love the displays of French poetry, romance novels, guides to writing, or Quebec winters, all tantalizingly exposed for the picking. I love the community newspapers, haphazardly stacked on little metal stands at the entrance, only some of which are in English or French. I love the free bookmarks advertising booksales for 1$ or less.
I love the stacks. I love the feeling of holding a piece of paper with a seemingly random jumble of numbers and letters that guides me to the book I want. I love the briskness in which I type a search into the computer monitor. I love finding a book in the 'New Arrivals' section that has been the talk of the town.
I love finding a DVD that wasn't there the last time or ordering a book that is at a library across town. I especially love the automated phone call telling me my requested book is waiting for me.
I love how the library is for everyone. Everyone is included and everyone belongs. I love how I have read many hundreds of pages of fiction, essays, graphic novel, and how-to books and haven't paid a cent.
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you must have known this would be the first one i would comment on! ..... ahhhh, the public library, or any library actually. the people watchers' delight. the book-loving-people-watchers' HEAVEN! the hours spent in pure bliss, hidden behind racks or in full sight, the random strangers in conversation, the friendships strengthened, the empassioned discussions had (in a whisper of course) and even the boyfriends met. and all surrounded by BOOKS! stacks and stacks of procrastinating distraction. okay, one last one, the book-loving people-watching procrastinators' NIRVANA
ReplyDeleteps. i look forward to seeing what way this blog bends in the future!