Sunday wonders - L

L is for Library. 

I can't remember when I didn't get books from a library.  This is the library I can walk to in ten minutes.  I went looking for photos of all the other libraries I had known but could find none.  There were lots of interesting photos, though.  And as usual, I spent a lot of time wandering down memory lane.  But, sadly no old library photos.

The first library where I had my own card was right across the street from me when I was nine.  This was probably the best feature of our new house.  I loved going over to what was really just a big room in the community hall.  I remember that there used to be summer reading competitions.  Naturally, I competed very hard.  I can't remember what the prizes were but I know that I only won once.  There were some ferocious readers - and competitors - when I was a young reader. 

I was heart-broken when they moved the library  but it turned out to be even better.  For me, if not for our elderly librarian.  Being a kid, I never knew the why of the move but looking back it seems curious.  The library moved to a free-standing building a couple of blocks closer to the shopping area.  But this building was much smaller.   Rent?  Politics?  Both?   Didn't matter to my girlfriend and I.  We would visit the library at least every other school afternoon from grade seven on.  Poor Miss Graham...we developed a thirst for Rosamond du Jardin novels.  We'd write up long lists to be ordered from the main library.  I often wonder if they had all the books in stock or if they actually went out a bought them.  In any case, we motored through every one.  And, one summer, the two of us were left in charge of the library for two whole weeks.  That was heaven!

In this age of e-ness, I have added a Kindle app to my netbook so that I can have lighter travel reading.  But I still prefer to have books that I can hold in my hand.  We only have two bookcases now - there used to be at least two more stuffed full.  Now, there are classics that we want to keep snuggled up with  those to-be-read novels which we find at book sales and thrift stores.

The other bookshelf is where all the reference type books are: knitting, birding, gardens and so much more.  They come out less and less, though, as we turn to the internet for more current - and faster - sources of information.  Oh, I forgot the cupboard with three shelves of cookbooks.  Now that is almost a dinosaur. 

But no matter how good the e-books or how many books I have at home, I know that I will never stop visiting the library.  It has changed a lot over the decades since I began reading but I still find - usually - just the book I'm looking for.