Tag: Library

5 Lines or Less · In Other Words · Tuesday Chatter · whatever!

In Other Words, library…

Patricia29 Comments

In Other Words

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https://pixabay.com/en/cat-tamara-fur-paws-ears-read-718936/The Library

For the past year, I have been going to the library downtown because the branch that is four blocks from where I live has been closed for much-needed renovations. Going downtown every couple of weeks wasn’t a big deal but it was inconvenient having to take the bus. Instead of a pleasant ten-minute walk, there was the waiting for the bus, the twenty minutes to get to the library and the same to get back home, not to mention needing exact change for the bus fare. The neighborhood branch reopened last week and I included a visit there when I took my walk the other day; it felt good to be at my library again, to see the old staff and meet the new. But it was strange and made me sad to see that though the new library is beautiful, with desks and comfy chairs, new computers, lots of movies and CD’s and even outdoor tables and chairs on two patios, there are fewer actual books on the shelves and somehow that just seems wrong.

memories · musings · Tuesday Chatter · whatever!

Libraries and books…

Patricia12 Comments

Some Tuesday Chatter at the Cafe

wise-cat-glasses-reading-book-animals-and_439957

My father loved to read and he shared the love of books with me.  Even before I learned to read I would go to the library with him.  He went every couple of weeks to get his supply of books and while he searched for just the right books to get I would wander the aisles in the wonder of all the shelves of books impatient for the day when I could have a library card and be permitted to take books home.

When I was finally in the first grade the wonderful day came and I got my library card.  I have not been without one since that day. Every couple of weeks I go to the library to wander and wonder and choose books just like Daddy did all those years ago.

The library here is renovating all the branches and now it is my libraries turn.  My branch will be closed for about a year.  Of course, there are other branches but not within walking distance so not as convenient. I will survive the year, though inconveniently.  It is wonderful that the library will be updated with meeting and media rooms,  and more computers.  It will be light and fresh and new. It is exciting but it is also sad. Sad because there will be fewer books, actual printed paper books with covers that spark the imagination. Real books to leaf through and read a sentence here and there before checking it out at the front desk and carrying it home.

It is probably a good thing that I am as old as I am because I will not know the day when there are no real books. When libraries will be buildings with meeting and media rooms and computers.  Nice, even beautiful buildings, but bare of shelves holding the world of books with written words waiting to be wandered through with wonder. Sad for me and sad for the readers of the future, too, who will only know e-books read on computers and tablets and phones. They will not know books that have weight and presence that can be leafed through back-and-forth, felt and held like a friend or lover.

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Celebrate the Small Things · Grateful · Uncategorized

Exercise is good…

Patricia8 Comments

It’s Friday and time to
Celebrate the Small Things

walking2

  • The weather was wonderful all week and there was no excuse not to get out and get some exercise.  Well, I could come up with some excuses but I talked myself out of being plain lazy and went walking.  So glad I did.  I always feel better after some exercise especially when the scenery is ready to pop with new growth and blossoms.

wise-cat-glasses-reading-book-animals-and_439957

  • We have a small library here in the building where I live.  Anyone who lives here can borrow books from the library and they can donate books for others to enjoy.  I took it upon myself to get it cleaned up and sorted.  In the last year, the books have been multiplying and the shelves are getting crowded.  I mentioned that it was time to clean and sort again and someone volunteered to help!  So that is what we have been doing.  Almost done.  To make room for new books some of the old  are being donated to the Friends of the Library for their annual sale.  It really is something to celebrate that the library is being enjoyed by so many folks in the building.
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Imagination · In Other Words (Quotes) · someone said · Uncategorized

I have always…

Patricia8 Comments

In Other Words

“I have always imagined that Paradise
will be a kind of library.”
Jorge Luis Borges

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memories · Monday · Uncategorized

Monday, memories…

Patricia

 

Woman browse books on an unknown library.
Image via Wikipedia

 

Today is Monday, October 18, 2010

 

I love to read.  It is my favorite thing to do.  I have always loved books; how they feel in my hands, how they look on the outside, promising something wonderful on the inside, the way the words look with different typefaces and the different papers and inks.  I loved books before I could read and someone else had to read the story to me.

Then there was school, I was finally in first grade.   At last I was going to learn to read!  Oh, the excitement and anticipation of what was to come.  Happily I had no problems with words, numbers were another story, but words and books were more than friends.  I started a love affair with them in first grade and it has lasted all these years, still wonderful and passionate.

I got a library card when I was six and have never been without one since.  The library was and is like a candy store to me.  So hard to decide which books to get.  I feel sad for people who do not know how to read.  And I really do not understand people who read only when they have to for school or work and never for pleasure.

Books teach me things and take me places, make me happy and sad, laugh and cry, hurt and angry.  They lie  and tell the truth, they ease my pain and heal  my soul.  Books are sometimes just okay, sometimes extraordinary, and sometimes worse than awful.  Most of the time they are simply wonderful gifts.

I remember the biggest word I learned in first grade.  Umbrella.  It was in the story, Sally and the Big Black Umbrella.  I even remember the picture at the top of the title page, Sally with the big black umbrella closed over her, all that could be seen of Sally was her shoes.

Once I learned that magic word, umbrella, I knew nothing could stop me from learning all the words in any book written.  I was on my way!  I could hardly wait to know enough words to read books without pictures in them.

I think bookworm is a compliment!


 

 

 

 

frankly · Friday

Friday, frankly…

Patricia
A Picture of a eBook
Image via Wikipedia

Today is Friday, October 1, 2010

I am a reader.  Not much for magazines or newspapers and such but books.  I love books–have since I was a little girl reading about Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot and Puff.  One of my favorite things to do, maybe my very favorite, is to get comfy in my rocker with my feet on the ottoman, or tucked up under me, with a glass of iced tea in the summer or hot chocolate in the winter and a big ole book.

With books you can travel without leaving home, see new things and people, get reacquainted with places and people you once knew but may have forgotten,  learn about things that are strange and bizarre and scary or familiar and comfortable and lovely or challenging and hard.  You can enter worlds of mystery, love, crime, outer space, reality or fantasy.  Books have power;  power to make you laugh or cry, get angry or compassionate, educate and feed your imagination.  At any time, you can go anywhere, with anyone, past, present, or future.

I can get lost in a book and lose track of time.  Lots of other things do not get done.  Laundry, cleaning, exercising, whatever else that should  get done takes a back seat to the book.  Often, I will find myself thinking that at the end of this chapter I will close the book and go to bed.  Before I know it  I am still reading and it is two am.  Makes for some rough mornings.

I rarely buy books anymore.  Trying to clutter free my place–books are not clutter in my world but they do take up a lot of space.  And they need  dusting now and then which, of course, is hard to find the time to do with all the books that are out there to read.  Anyway, I am trying to simplify my space and be more “green” so I am a regular at the library.  Even as a child the library was one of my favorite places.

Now there are e-book readers.  I have never used one but I can understand the appeal of them.  They are small and light weight and can store hundreds if not thousands of books.  They are easy to carry, fitting in a pocket or purse.  Someday I may get one but I doubt it.  I like the feel and look of a book.  I like to feel the heft of it and to feel the pages. I like the look of the ink and typeface on the paper, especially creamy paper without any shine. I like turning the pages and having bookmarks to save my place. Somehow the new world e-book reader thingies really just don’t cut it in my old world.

Frankly, I love books.  Books are just plain super wonderful!