bibliothéque
I love the library. Love, love, love it. I want my kids to know their local library inside and out (and possibly the county library too–any number of branches will do). Every time I visit I’m impressed with the fact that it’s like a home: Every wall has some kind of item or decoration on it; time and care have obviously gone into the place, like the schoolroom of a good elementary school teacher. Granted, much of it is chintzy and slightly tacky, but show me a home in America that doesn’t have at least one element of mismatched décor or some out-of-place looking heirloom on the mantlepiece. It makes the place seem lived-in, gives it a warmth, a patina that just draws me in. There aren’t many public projects I’d willing pay taxes to fund, but a well-kept public library is one of them.
I think a lot of my deep-seated attraction for the place stems from my many Saturday visits to the Durham County Public Library as a pre-teen. My mom was involved in the adult education program and was teaching a local man to read; their sessions were every Saturday morning. I tagged along and in the process, became very familiar with that place—the young adult non-fiction, the adult non-fiction, the reference area, the microfiche desk, the periodicals… I just loved being there, and I want my kids to feel a measure of that in relation to their local library.