Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I've been reading about the coming generation and technology--how as of now, you can have a book printed off the Internet, or read it on your I-Phone etc. Will libraries with their shelves of books become obsolete one day?

Some of the finest hours of my life were spent in a library surrounded by rows of fusty leather bound volumes, and the smell of old paper and glue; dog eared paperbacks; magazines and newspapers--I would recognize that library smell anywhere. I read myself through the misery of growing up lost in books--it was a comforting feeling.

Reading was as necessary as water--I always had a book tucked in my waistband for easy access-- I had books everywhere--I had to have them. Books were the one thing I could turn to when I had to shut out the sound of my parents fighting. They said "She's always got her head in a book."

The quiet at the library was maintained by a lady wearing harlequin glasses behind the desk, who would pull out the drawers of cards and help you find a certain book and allowed you to check out a maximum of five books, with a warning they had to be returned in 10 days or so. You had to have a library card before you were allowed to check out those books. It was a commitment we both took seriously.

How much the generations to come will miss if they never have to visit those quiet havens, where surrounded by rows of books and that library smell, you could lose yourself and find the world and all its knowledge at your fingertips. Yep, lock me in a library and shove a sandwich under the door once in a while, and I would die happy.

susil