Monday September 19, 2005
Monday September 19, 2005 The whispered hushes of a library make me feel at home. When I was 12, my father used to drop us off every week at the Middletown Free Library for a blissful visit into the land of stories. It was a teeny tiny place - not a formal library building but rather a white one-story that had the small rooms and nooks and crannies of a New England house* converted into a library. We'd stay for around an hour - and on rare occasion my father would run an errand or two rather than sitting and reading and waiting. I can still remember one of the librarians stiffly informing my father, in a high-pitched nasal voice, "you know, we don't run a babysitting service here, sir."
In later years, on oh-so-very-humid New Hampshire summer days, my sister and I would take a long walk every week to visit the Concord Public Library. We'd return home with gleeful smiles on our faces and as many books as we could carry stacked all the way to our chins. (I guess backpacks were out of fashion or something?)
Some bookstores, especially ones equipped with armchairs and benches that make you feel welcome to browse and read, hold that same magical quality for me.
One of my favorite all-time bookstores (an independent one of course) is Kepler's Books & Magazines in Menlo Park, California. Sadly, Kepler's abruptly shut its doors on August 31st as the owner announced that it had gone out of business. I was stunned. As were many in Menlo Park. Some devoted fans are rallying to save Kepler's, in fact. I've spent countless hours at Keplers - browsing, reading, socializing and of course adding books to my collection. I know that things change and there's a constant tug of war between the old and the new - but it is sad to see this fixture of the community go. (I'm still hoping that it won't, and that this is just a temporary setback. Negotiations are underway, I believe.)
* [Updated: Here is a photo of the white one-story Middletown Free Library from the link above - boy does it bring back memories...]
(2005-09-19 01:12:19.0) Permalink Comments [1]
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Posted by stephen ogrady on September 19, 2005 at 08:48 AM PDT #