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(07) libraries
Nov. 7th, 2010 04:56 pmOne of the first things I do when I move to any city is get a library card. It's a means of orienting or grounding myself in a city, of making myself a part of it while it still feels unfamiliar. And then I hang out there, a lot. It's what I do, what I've always done: spend time in the library.
Except in the past couple of years, for literally the first time in my life (in all seriousness, I don't remember a time when my life wasn't marked by regular trips to the library), I've gotten out of the habit of it. I know when it started, too: when I signed up for paperback swap. PBS was, and still is, a fascinating premise: books, mailed to you for free, as long as you pay for the postage to send your books to other people. It totally worked, too, and I was regularly getting books in the mail, and I just fell out of the habit of Saturday trips to the library.
And then this weekend, I was stricken by the urge to read Walker Percy, and I just didn't feel like waiting for Love in the Ruins to arrive by post, and I didn't feel like my budget could stand the weight of a bookstore run just now (I don't think I've ever walked out of a bookstore with only one book in hand), and then I thought, HEY. I know a place where you can go and they let you borrow their books! And it's totally free!
Man, libraries. Shelves of books as far as you can see, wrapped around corners, on turning and staionary racks, coated cloth bindings and crackling book covers. The librarian who checked out my books remembered me and replaced my battered old keytag with a new one. It was like going home again after a long time away.
Except in the past couple of years, for literally the first time in my life (in all seriousness, I don't remember a time when my life wasn't marked by regular trips to the library), I've gotten out of the habit of it. I know when it started, too: when I signed up for paperback swap. PBS was, and still is, a fascinating premise: books, mailed to you for free, as long as you pay for the postage to send your books to other people. It totally worked, too, and I was regularly getting books in the mail, and I just fell out of the habit of Saturday trips to the library.
And then this weekend, I was stricken by the urge to read Walker Percy, and I just didn't feel like waiting for Love in the Ruins to arrive by post, and I didn't feel like my budget could stand the weight of a bookstore run just now (I don't think I've ever walked out of a bookstore with only one book in hand), and then I thought, HEY. I know a place where you can go and they let you borrow their books! And it's totally free!
Man, libraries. Shelves of books as far as you can see, wrapped around corners, on turning and staionary racks, coated cloth bindings and crackling book covers. The librarian who checked out my books remembered me and replaced my battered old keytag with a new one. It was like going home again after a long time away.
