I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?
I didn’t have a current library card for several years until last fall – it’s a long story involving my cat, a cd that I had checked out, and the underside of our sofa. So, even though we have a perfectly beautiful library WITH a coffeeshop in the lobby, I tend to migrate to the closest bookstore instead. This causes all sorts of havok at home, as we have a single wall in our office for bookshelves, and we ran out of room on the shelves before even putting them up.
The library as a child…. dark, musty, dusty, with unwashed people sitting in kiosks. The library spooked me a bit, but I loved to go because I loved to read. I just didn’t much like staying longer than necessary.
I lived in Philadelphia for a couple of years, and just adored the library there. I didn’t go to the library downtown very often, but out near where I lived, there was a very nice branch – lots of windows, spacious, with mothers bringing toddlers for storytime. Too far out in the suburbs for anyone to use the library as just a place to get out of the elements. Almost the kind of library Eugene has today. I found lots of great books at that library – most of them, sadly, out of print.
I should borrow books more than I do. I know this. But honestly, now that I have a library card again, the library and I have a battle of wills about an appropriate amount of time to have a book in my possession – they say 3 weeks, I prefer 6. And I’m always forgetting to go online and renew my books for those extra weeks, so every now and then, I drop my last set of books off along with the late fees I’ve accumulated. And then go to the bookstore, where no-one cares how many times I want to re-read a book.
