Saturday morning I got lost at the library. I walked over to return a few books that were overdue, and figured that while I was there, I would look for some books on a few other subjects I am interested in: running and gardening. I walked into the non-fiction section, starting at 796.42, but shortly abandoned what I had come for. I moved left into word games, around the corner to cooking, over to container gardening, down another aisle to health and wellness, and over to back pain. An hour and a half later, I left the library with two books, neither about running or gardening.
The hour and a half lost in the library made me reminiscint of visiting the library as a kid.
Our local library was a Carnegie Library, with a comfortable childrens' section in a half buried basement and a mysterious adult section upstairs. The entrance was a landing between the two, and upon passing through that door, you had to decide to which class you belonged. The feeling of importance and daring when I decided to go up rather than down was a marked point in my childhood.
Later in life when I read Annie Dillard's chapter on her childhood library in An American Childhood, I felt like I had met myself. Only, at the top of the stairs, we parted ways: she turned left into the non-fiction books and I turned right into the fiction. I would walk among those rows, picking out all the books I wanted to read: Dickens, Thackary, Eliot, Hugo, Dumas, Stevenson, Austen. Finding them was pretty easy: if it was published by Dodd, Mead & Co. in the "Great Illustrated Classics" series, I wanted to read it. One year when I was in middle school, I decided that all those books weren't going to get read if I didn't take them home, so I went through and pulled them all from the shelves. I lugged them all home and lined them up on my windowsill: they nearly filled the five foot span. How many did I read? Zero. How much did I pay in fines? About $35 - a minor fortune to a middle schooler who was currently earning $2 an hour babysitting.
When I got into high school, I lost my time to read and my visits to the library became more rare. Also, the library moved to a much more practical but much less romantic building. Nevertheless, the feeling of potential when I walk through those doors remains.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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8 comments:
ooooh - the BPL is magnificent, no?
Have you seen the Sargent murals?
And, I highly recommend tea at the cafe - quite fun, and sooooo classy. =)
(though, i can't remember anything about their actual selection of tea - it might not quite be up to your standards...)
Teal -
I have mixed feelings about BPL. I do love the old part, but the new part feels dirty and depressing and I rarely find any book I'm looking for.
However, I very much want to take tea in their cafe some time!
Mel, If we had the library you do I think I would be there more often. Our local library is like the new section at the BPL, nothing inspiring about it. I'm hoping the next place we live has a library that will reawaken that sense of limitless opportunities that I felt as a child at the library.
You paint a lovely picture of a child connecting with books. I just always read whatever was handy, but the library made a lot of things handy.
Your description of the old library took me back. If I think hard enough, I can even remember the smell of old books, old shelves, and old carpet all crammer into a basement.
I should make a date with myself to get lost in the library some time. My library excursions include taking along my Automated Bookshelf Unloaders and I can't think, let alone dream.
my days at the library consist of chasing after a 2 y/o, trying to keep him away from the "quiet area." hope that 2 y/o will one day have nostalgic memories as well. I echo the thoughts on BPL cafe. Ante N, we used to love sitting by the fountains to prepare for c's boards and to get lost with a camera at hand. I loved how the water fountains would drown out the sounds of our city just beyond the courtyard. Now, you are making me nostalgic. :) I also love our Brookline's main branch. Is that where you go?
Hi Melanie! I hope it's OK to contact you this way, but when I found out a fellow tea lover is also a fellow tatter, I had to share this link:
http://my.att.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=87&subpageid=338545&ck=
I ordered the book and cannot WAIT to have some tatted teapots to show on my blog. I knew you would appreciate knowing about this as well! Take care!
Wow! did you ever capture the feelings of the old library.I loved roaming through the children's section discovering treasures. I vividly remember the day I checked out books from the upstairs. I felt so grown-up. I also remember getting lost upstairs trying to find my mother.
The Carnegie Library is part of the reason I am in library school today.
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