I have a confession. I hate libraries--especially university libraries. Part of it is that the library is always the last building on campus to be updated or renovated, so the chairs are always broken and skanky, the carpet thread bare, the thermostat always wrong, and I'm sorry, but the Dewey Decimal system is totally bizarre. Oh, and the books--with those awful generic covers, usually in the ugliest shade of green or orange possible--why, oh why do they do that? I know, students can't be trusted not to mangle the real covers, but--ugh!
But more importantly, I like to buy books. I'm not easy on them. I like to curl the front cover around when I'm reading, I like to dogear pages and make notes in the margins, and with library books, I just can't get comfortable.
This is why, for the last ten years, I have only borrowed library books when I'm writing papers--because you don't want to get comfortable with those books anyhow. I've developed quite a book-buying habit over the last few years, though, that is getting difficult to accommodate both financially and spatially. So...I borrowed a couple of books from the library yesterday, just to read them. This is purely an experiment. If I can't comfortably snuggle into bed with Whitman's collected poetry and prose, well, then, it's back to Borders for this girl. We'll see.
Poem: Highs and Lows
5 hours ago
5 comments:
Have you been to the big, pretty public library downtown? They have a good poetry section, and it's not threadbare at all. :) You can actually get work done there, too.
Oooh! No, I haven't been there yet. I'll definitely check it out. Thanks, Mary!
You are the only person I know that gets this! Thank God for you! I have known no one to describe my Ill-at-easeness-of-The-Library and the terrible shame I feel when, upon finding out I am a books-chick, people immediately recommend their public library or school library and I get all cringey.
We should start a club! Or a nation-wide campaign to un-creepify libraries. :)
Thanks for that tip, Mary! I somehow never think of poetry when I go to the public library, but knitting books and videos.
Strange, Sara! I am such a fan of the library! It's always been my favorite place on campus, a refuge and sanctuary of sorts, where we all work silently together in the pursuit of some hight good. This being together, yet doing your own thing, really appeals to me, and I don't get that at home with my cat.
I bought too many books in my younger years and have been on a strict diet, made possible by the libraries around, especially fabulous Ohio Link. I've paid my dues in fees, of course, but at least I haven't had to buy new book shelves every year!
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