Heaven for me as a ten year old was going to a nearby Manhattan public library (parents were much more liberal in 1972 NYC than NYC today about letting their kids out on their own), taking out a volume of "The Great Brain," my favorite series, and reading it at a Baskin Robbins while eating strawberry ice cream.
I recently discovered a beautiful library in the central part of the city i live in. I have walked past it thousands of times but never entered it. Until recently. I was contemplating whether or not I should get a membership but after reading this. I will. Thankyou for writing this. When I am not broke, I'll definitely subscribe. Much love to you.
My fav library is the big Toronto reference library. It’s like a castle with spiral stairs that go down the middle. I like to go there and write exams because it’s quiet and nobody bothers you except for when they ask you for some spare change (which is still better than being bothered by my kids)
There’s also a nice library by our old house that my kids like cuz they have a mini slide. For some reason the mini slide in the library is cooler than the big slide at the play ground.
Lifelong fan of that socialist monster: The Public Library. The best thing that I can say about libraries currently, however, is that my partner works at one and this is one of the biggest reasons we are shtupping now. We knew each other for a dozen years before we started getting naked. We were social friends. We were, briefly, workmates. But the sparks that inspire the shtupping did not fly until he started working at the library. I'm just sayin... who needs online dating sites when you could just WORK AT THE LIBRARY?!?
We visit our local library every Saturday, it’s ace. On the tech side you can use the Libby app to borrow audio books for free. The library app where we live also let’s you order books, go in and check them out on your phone, it is the stuff of legends...oh and it is free. As a class teacher we take the children to the local library on a trip as many have never been to it!
3. The craziest thing was when I threw oranges at my brother, who worker in the Kitsilano library up here in Vancouver Canada. We were in our 20s btw. I found him in the stacks, shelving books. I had a bag of groceries. Can’t remember why I tossed a couple of oranges at him but we had a good laugh and he didn’t get in trouble. I suppose it happened to him more than me but reallyto both of us, just like your sexapade. Assuming you were with someone?
Things I liked about this writing/post/what do you call these here things on Substack, and also things it made me think of:
1. That thing about how you just scroll and scroll online, and one thing becomes another. What are you actually reading? All this other stuff distracting you, accept cookies, buy this, read this other thing. I never really conceptualised this as a reading experience before.
2. My husband thinks you HAVE to read until the end of the chapter as the author has designed. I disagree. If I want to stop reading at a point that feels appropriate I stop. Thoughts?
3. Forgive my ignorance- did you write a book? Where can I pre -order/order?
4. You just reminded me that o should give my local library another go. I always get a bit overwhelmed and after looking for the latest, only just published book that I want to read and they don’t have, I give up! But it would be fun to just to grab books with fun titles (about frogs?) and read them. I am going to do that this weekend. I have a card and everything.
5. This is my teenage years: go to the library, spend hours selecting from various plastic wrapped books with hyper realistic but at the same time kind of freaky illustrations of teenagers on (in gangs, looking sad, wearing funky earrings); check books out; read said books; let books languish under bed and build up fines; worry about fines; not return books; fines get bigger and bigger. I forget how this ended. Did I pay the fines? Confess to my parents? All i know is this was repeated ad nauseam.
6. Remember me to Harold square (Paula Danziger anyone??)
This is a great reminder to go visit my local library. The last one I've been to was at my university's and you were right, it was so fun just to hang out there with friends.
I loved the library growing up, and cherished having a membership card. I bought a wallet just for that card. Another reason I loved the library? Records!!! Music! Albums! I kept having to check out the Beatles JUST to listen to Eleanor Rigby. Didn’t really listen to the rest of it much. Just Eleanor on repeat. 😂 Fun kid!! Imma need to get to that gorgeous LA library. That picture sold me. And it’s FREE!!!!! (Thank you for the discount, btw. Coin purse is tight these days, but supporting does feel good 😊)
I love Libraries. I have many memories of when I was a little boy, in Portugal we have Intinerant Libraries. The pass by my hometown once a week, I took so e books home, read them and them I go next week to left the ones I've allready read and take new ones. Was wonderfully, and somehow set the reading rithim.
OMGersh, the library was my bestest best friend during my high school years. That's when I became addicted to adult romance books and the library closest to our house (don't remember the name of it) fed that addiction. I was there every weekend. LOL I honestly don't remember what age my older sister and I got our library cards, but my grephew (great nephew) just got his last week! So psyched for him to discover that place, and he's almost two. For his first birthday last year, my niece requested books (not toys) as gifts. And I about lost. my damn. mind. Because BOOKS. ARE. EVERYTHING. I'd rather get him books and clothes than toys. And to answer your other question, nothing crazy ever happened to me in a library. Because it's a library. It's a sacred place like a monastery or a temple or something. LOL
I love libraries, and your essay took me down my own memory lane of living and breathing in libraries. I was a student librarian in both my high school and college. I remember flipping through index cards in wooden catalog cabinets with tiny little drawers! After I donated and sold 90% of my book collection during my last cross-continental move, I only own a small number of books now and prefer to go to the library for my book binging needs. I also have a sizeable collection on my Kindle, but I still prefer the physical book. My local library allows me to read on a tight budget, and there's no guilt involved should I end up flipping through only a few pages due to a lack of time. I live in a relatively poor community but the library here is fantastic. It's got an expansive view over the Hudson River and it's spacious. The library also performs different community services, organizing classes and offering a "library of things" for people to borrow. They also offer museum passes for library members to venture out and explore culture. There's even a community organic garden next to it, and a little fridge storing produce from the garden for people to purchase. There's also a catalog of seeds for people to take and plant in their gardens. I'd call this a full-service library. Anyway, all this is to say, I love libraries!
I think it's wonderful how you instill the love of books and libraries in your kid, making it a fun thing! I've been to the Santa Monica Library and it's quite amazing!!!
I love libraries. My wife and I went to the LA library last week to check out the Octavia Butler Media Lab. We recorded a podcast in one of their audio booths, and they have free 3D printers, sewing machines, green screen. So cool.
Went to library every week, got a huge stack of books, and read them all. Lived in Pittsburgh, home of those first free libraries set up by rich capitalist Carnegie, so even the branch libraries were huge. I remember how excited i was when I was given special dispensation to move over to the adult section because I was such a precocious reader. Loved to spend evenings in the library in college, pretty much for the same reasons you gave--made me part of a community-also excellent place for flirting. Then married one of those people I flirted with and eventually he became a librarian! Of course, 7 years working on doctorate--spent every day in library. But now, my library is on line (whether using all that stuff Google scanned and made digital so I can do my research into old obscure books from the comfort of my home) or reading my kindle, which doesn't hurt my arthritic wrists and I can increase font so I don't have to get a magnifying glass to read the ridiculously small print publishers use to save money in production of their print books. But I love hearing about you spending your days in library and love remembering taking my own daughter to the local library for her own stack of books!
I buy a lot of books now because I want to have a nice grand ole bookshelf with my favorite titles, but I used to go to this massive library in my town as a kid. As much as I learnt about book reading I also learned about these strange people called librarians and these even stranger events called "Vietnam Vets support groups" that were held in some breakout rooms in the library. The librarians would tell us not to yell and scream in the library, but they never told the "Vietnam Vets support group" to quiet down when some violent anguished scream would emanate from the room. Maybe they were reading Goosebumps in there- the one about the guy who turns into the plant in the basement. I would be screaming too if I read that.
my son is 6mo and I work at a little outside coffee bar across from the central library downtown. I keep wanting to walk over and bring him in because I am SO EXCITED for the stage of parenting life that includes picking out pancake stacks of books to bring home. once his wake windows are longer (remember those days? 🫠) and he doesn’t immediately shove books in his mouth (he doesn’t know they’re not actually pancakes) we’re gonna make it a THING.
Library stories, from in the library which happened there!!!??? WOW you must have gone to the library a lot too!!!
As a kid I loved our city library! At that time (because I am old which I know surprises everyone) Growing up in a very small town - a REALLY small town. All of the books had been
Oh joy my crooked RA flaring shoulder made my crooked arm gif send or post or some button or other - soooo -people in the little town donated all the books in this little library. It was located in a really old little house that had creaking wood floors. I loved the way it smelled - books and old wood floors along with a librarian that I knew (as the Mom of a friend)
I went in to get my stack of pancake books.
I was in junior high (okay elementary school) and I pick out books in the section for people in my age group. I had seen an ad or maybe heard my 2 older sisters talk about James Bond, and they were whispering so I knew it must have talked about or showed naked people.
I grabbed a paperback of Goldfinger. I stuffed it in between my kids books & figured she would not notice / of COURSE she saw it!
Knowing this lady was NOT from the group of ladies Mother knew I knew she would not tell on me. When she came to the Bond, James Bond Book she looked at me and asked if my mother allowed me to read this type of book because it was a book for grown ups. I stood there with my fingers crossed behind my back and Lied - I not only said yes - I said of course she let me read these kind of books! She knows I am mature for my age. She also knew that I read as well as a grownup and read better than a lot of them! She knows I’m really a good reader. I say the look that told me this might get back to Mother- so I said but this is for my sister!..,,,,so I hid the book and when I was ready to get in trouble I lied to Mother the discipline in our house - I told her to look in my pancake bag - no Bond Book there! It was hidden outside in the woods where we played. That night it rained. It rained a LOT. When I took the other books back I snuck Bond back on the shelf. So I got into a TON of trouble over that fiasco! But because I already loved to read I still went to the library, but made sure it was on a day with a different library lady!
To this day I have not read Goldfinger nor have I watched the movie. But I have checked out probably a million books. Long Story short - NEVER LIE TO A LIBRARIAN!!
HUGE James Bond fan here. Sean. Pierce. Daniel. In that order. Goldfinger isn't my favorite of Sean's (It's Dr. No, btw), but that's a good one. Funny enough, I tried reading the James Bond books, thinking "If I'm a fan of the movies, the books have got to be awesomesauce, too, tight?" Yeahhhhhh, not so much. There were a little boring. LOL #moviemajic. HOWEVER, I did see Ian Fleming's house when my ex and I visited Ocho Rios, Jamaica in 2001. We went on a cruise and one of the excursions was a coffee plantation tour that took us past the house. Would've loved to have seen the inside.
Very cool! I am a fan (a bit) of the movies - at that stage in life I just wanted to see naked people! 😂 I live quite the sheltered life back then. I loved to read, a lot! I would read encyclopedias, the medical book that came with them, the yearly updates in a large book. I read not only the fun stuff on cereal boxes but also the ingredients! 😂 I had already read all of Nancy Drew & the Bobbsey Twins! But the silly thing was that I thought the books with all the fairy tales those houses were where I would live when I got married. HA Hardly!
Heaven for me as a ten year old was going to a nearby Manhattan public library (parents were much more liberal in 1972 NYC than NYC today about letting their kids out on their own), taking out a volume of "The Great Brain," my favorite series, and reading it at a Baskin Robbins while eating strawberry ice cream.
I recently discovered a beautiful library in the central part of the city i live in. I have walked past it thousands of times but never entered it. Until recently. I was contemplating whether or not I should get a membership but after reading this. I will. Thankyou for writing this. When I am not broke, I'll definitely subscribe. Much love to you.
My fav library is the big Toronto reference library. It’s like a castle with spiral stairs that go down the middle. I like to go there and write exams because it’s quiet and nobody bothers you except for when they ask you for some spare change (which is still better than being bothered by my kids)
There’s also a nice library by our old house that my kids like cuz they have a mini slide. For some reason the mini slide in the library is cooler than the big slide at the play ground.
I don’t do sex in libraries
Lifelong fan of that socialist monster: The Public Library. The best thing that I can say about libraries currently, however, is that my partner works at one and this is one of the biggest reasons we are shtupping now. We knew each other for a dozen years before we started getting naked. We were social friends. We were, briefly, workmates. But the sparks that inspire the shtupping did not fly until he started working at the library. I'm just sayin... who needs online dating sites when you could just WORK AT THE LIBRARY?!?
We visit our local library every Saturday, it’s ace. On the tech side you can use the Libby app to borrow audio books for free. The library app where we live also let’s you order books, go in and check them out on your phone, it is the stuff of legends...oh and it is free. As a class teacher we take the children to the local library on a trip as many have never been to it!
3. The craziest thing was when I threw oranges at my brother, who worker in the Kitsilano library up here in Vancouver Canada. We were in our 20s btw. I found him in the stacks, shelving books. I had a bag of groceries. Can’t remember why I tossed a couple of oranges at him but we had a good laugh and he didn’t get in trouble. I suppose it happened to him more than me but reallyto both of us, just like your sexapade. Assuming you were with someone?
Things I liked about this writing/post/what do you call these here things on Substack, and also things it made me think of:
1. That thing about how you just scroll and scroll online, and one thing becomes another. What are you actually reading? All this other stuff distracting you, accept cookies, buy this, read this other thing. I never really conceptualised this as a reading experience before.
2. My husband thinks you HAVE to read until the end of the chapter as the author has designed. I disagree. If I want to stop reading at a point that feels appropriate I stop. Thoughts?
3. Forgive my ignorance- did you write a book? Where can I pre -order/order?
4. You just reminded me that o should give my local library another go. I always get a bit overwhelmed and after looking for the latest, only just published book that I want to read and they don’t have, I give up! But it would be fun to just to grab books with fun titles (about frogs?) and read them. I am going to do that this weekend. I have a card and everything.
5. This is my teenage years: go to the library, spend hours selecting from various plastic wrapped books with hyper realistic but at the same time kind of freaky illustrations of teenagers on (in gangs, looking sad, wearing funky earrings); check books out; read said books; let books languish under bed and build up fines; worry about fines; not return books; fines get bigger and bigger. I forget how this ended. Did I pay the fines? Confess to my parents? All i know is this was repeated ad nauseam.
6. Remember me to Harold square (Paula Danziger anyone??)
This is a great reminder to go visit my local library. The last one I've been to was at my university's and you were right, it was so fun just to hang out there with friends.
I loved the library growing up, and cherished having a membership card. I bought a wallet just for that card. Another reason I loved the library? Records!!! Music! Albums! I kept having to check out the Beatles JUST to listen to Eleanor Rigby. Didn’t really listen to the rest of it much. Just Eleanor on repeat. 😂 Fun kid!! Imma need to get to that gorgeous LA library. That picture sold me. And it’s FREE!!!!! (Thank you for the discount, btw. Coin purse is tight these days, but supporting does feel good 😊)
I love Libraries. I have many memories of when I was a little boy, in Portugal we have Intinerant Libraries. The pass by my hometown once a week, I took so e books home, read them and them I go next week to left the ones I've allready read and take new ones. Was wonderfully, and somehow set the reading rithim.
OMGersh, the library was my bestest best friend during my high school years. That's when I became addicted to adult romance books and the library closest to our house (don't remember the name of it) fed that addiction. I was there every weekend. LOL I honestly don't remember what age my older sister and I got our library cards, but my grephew (great nephew) just got his last week! So psyched for him to discover that place, and he's almost two. For his first birthday last year, my niece requested books (not toys) as gifts. And I about lost. my damn. mind. Because BOOKS. ARE. EVERYTHING. I'd rather get him books and clothes than toys. And to answer your other question, nothing crazy ever happened to me in a library. Because it's a library. It's a sacred place like a monastery or a temple or something. LOL
I love libraries, and your essay took me down my own memory lane of living and breathing in libraries. I was a student librarian in both my high school and college. I remember flipping through index cards in wooden catalog cabinets with tiny little drawers! After I donated and sold 90% of my book collection during my last cross-continental move, I only own a small number of books now and prefer to go to the library for my book binging needs. I also have a sizeable collection on my Kindle, but I still prefer the physical book. My local library allows me to read on a tight budget, and there's no guilt involved should I end up flipping through only a few pages due to a lack of time. I live in a relatively poor community but the library here is fantastic. It's got an expansive view over the Hudson River and it's spacious. The library also performs different community services, organizing classes and offering a "library of things" for people to borrow. They also offer museum passes for library members to venture out and explore culture. There's even a community organic garden next to it, and a little fridge storing produce from the garden for people to purchase. There's also a catalog of seeds for people to take and plant in their gardens. I'd call this a full-service library. Anyway, all this is to say, I love libraries!
I think it's wonderful how you instill the love of books and libraries in your kid, making it a fun thing! I've been to the Santa Monica Library and it's quite amazing!!!
I love libraries. My wife and I went to the LA library last week to check out the Octavia Butler Media Lab. We recorded a podcast in one of their audio booths, and they have free 3D printers, sewing machines, green screen. So cool.
Went to library every week, got a huge stack of books, and read them all. Lived in Pittsburgh, home of those first free libraries set up by rich capitalist Carnegie, so even the branch libraries were huge. I remember how excited i was when I was given special dispensation to move over to the adult section because I was such a precocious reader. Loved to spend evenings in the library in college, pretty much for the same reasons you gave--made me part of a community-also excellent place for flirting. Then married one of those people I flirted with and eventually he became a librarian! Of course, 7 years working on doctorate--spent every day in library. But now, my library is on line (whether using all that stuff Google scanned and made digital so I can do my research into old obscure books from the comfort of my home) or reading my kindle, which doesn't hurt my arthritic wrists and I can increase font so I don't have to get a magnifying glass to read the ridiculously small print publishers use to save money in production of their print books. But I love hearing about you spending your days in library and love remembering taking my own daughter to the local library for her own stack of books!
I buy a lot of books now because I want to have a nice grand ole bookshelf with my favorite titles, but I used to go to this massive library in my town as a kid. As much as I learnt about book reading I also learned about these strange people called librarians and these even stranger events called "Vietnam Vets support groups" that were held in some breakout rooms in the library. The librarians would tell us not to yell and scream in the library, but they never told the "Vietnam Vets support group" to quiet down when some violent anguished scream would emanate from the room. Maybe they were reading Goosebumps in there- the one about the guy who turns into the plant in the basement. I would be screaming too if I read that.
my son is 6mo and I work at a little outside coffee bar across from the central library downtown. I keep wanting to walk over and bring him in because I am SO EXCITED for the stage of parenting life that includes picking out pancake stacks of books to bring home. once his wake windows are longer (remember those days? 🫠) and he doesn’t immediately shove books in his mouth (he doesn’t know they’re not actually pancakes) we’re gonna make it a THING.
Library stories, from in the library which happened there!!!??? WOW you must have gone to the library a lot too!!!
As a kid I loved our city library! At that time (because I am old which I know surprises everyone) Growing up in a very small town - a REALLY small town. All of the books had been
Oh joy my crooked RA flaring shoulder made my crooked arm gif send or post or some button or other - soooo -people in the little town donated all the books in this little library. It was located in a really old little house that had creaking wood floors. I loved the way it smelled - books and old wood floors along with a librarian that I knew (as the Mom of a friend)
I went in to get my stack of pancake books.
I was in junior high (okay elementary school) and I pick out books in the section for people in my age group. I had seen an ad or maybe heard my 2 older sisters talk about James Bond, and they were whispering so I knew it must have talked about or showed naked people.
I grabbed a paperback of Goldfinger. I stuffed it in between my kids books & figured she would not notice / of COURSE she saw it!
Knowing this lady was NOT from the group of ladies Mother knew I knew she would not tell on me. When she came to the Bond, James Bond Book she looked at me and asked if my mother allowed me to read this type of book because it was a book for grown ups. I stood there with my fingers crossed behind my back and Lied - I not only said yes - I said of course she let me read these kind of books! She knows I am mature for my age. She also knew that I read as well as a grownup and read better than a lot of them! She knows I’m really a good reader. I say the look that told me this might get back to Mother- so I said but this is for my sister!..,,,,so I hid the book and when I was ready to get in trouble I lied to Mother the discipline in our house - I told her to look in my pancake bag - no Bond Book there! It was hidden outside in the woods where we played. That night it rained. It rained a LOT. When I took the other books back I snuck Bond back on the shelf. So I got into a TON of trouble over that fiasco! But because I already loved to read I still went to the library, but made sure it was on a day with a different library lady!
To this day I have not read Goldfinger nor have I watched the movie. But I have checked out probably a million books. Long Story short - NEVER LIE TO A LIBRARIAN!!
HUGE James Bond fan here. Sean. Pierce. Daniel. In that order. Goldfinger isn't my favorite of Sean's (It's Dr. No, btw), but that's a good one. Funny enough, I tried reading the James Bond books, thinking "If I'm a fan of the movies, the books have got to be awesomesauce, too, tight?" Yeahhhhhh, not so much. There were a little boring. LOL #moviemajic. HOWEVER, I did see Ian Fleming's house when my ex and I visited Ocho Rios, Jamaica in 2001. We went on a cruise and one of the excursions was a coffee plantation tour that took us past the house. Would've loved to have seen the inside.
Very cool! I am a fan (a bit) of the movies - at that stage in life I just wanted to see naked people! 😂 I live quite the sheltered life back then. I loved to read, a lot! I would read encyclopedias, the medical book that came with them, the yearly updates in a large book. I read not only the fun stuff on cereal boxes but also the ingredients! 😂 I had already read all of Nancy Drew & the Bobbsey Twins! But the silly thing was that I thought the books with all the fairy tales those houses were where I would live when I got married. HA Hardly!