MUSINGS BY JOAN #15
So long, Borders. Bye bye, Barnes & Noble. My apologies, Amazon.com.
So long, Borders. Bye bye, Barnes & Noble. My apologies, Amazon.com.
I have rediscovered the joys of the public library and no longer need you. Not only am I the proud possessor of a highly plasticized, extremely colorful new library card, but I also have a little thingy on my key chain with a bar code just like the one I have for the pharmacy and the food market.
Who knew??? Even the public library is totally computerized these days. A far cry from the intimidating atmosphere of the Mt.Vernon Public Library where I grew up. Visits to those hushed halls were regular weekly occasions in my childhood. But in all honesty, I haven’t set foot in any public library since I left New York City fifty four years ago. I worked in the City in those days and my office was close to the incredible Fifth Avenue Library. They were always having great exhibitions of one kind or another, and I loved to drop in on my lunch hour, although I don’t remember taking out any books..
The Coconut Grove Public Library is a delightful, sunny, bungalow-style building with a super friendly staff who are more than happy to e-mail you when the book you’ve reserved becomes available. In seconds, they search the computers for some obscure book title. . . anyone remember the long skinny boxes of 3x5 cards that librarians used to paw through when you asked about a particular book???
I have to admit that it took the tanking economy to get me back into the library. I have been living in the Grove for close to 20 years now and have passed the library on my way to the center of town literally thousands of times. I’m ashamed to say I never thought of going in. Now, it’s a regular stop and I find myself taking home some really odd books that I certainly would never buy but just look so interesting, I can’t resist.
At the moment I am reading a book called “Nose Down, Eyes Up” written by the New York Times best selling author of “Walking In Circles Before Lying Down”. His name is Merrill Markoe and I am sure you never heard of him or either book. I certainly never did. The central character in this book seems to be a dog named Jimmy, and according to the Los Angeles Times on the back cover, “it is told with Markoe’s trademark mix of dark humor and quirky vulnerability .” So it isn’t “War & Peace”. I promise I’ll try to read something more impressive on my next visit.
So far, Jimmy seems to have a lot more smarts than Marley and I loved/cried my way through that book and movie. With the state of my stock market account and all the scary news in the daily newspaper, maybe a book about a dog isn’t such a bad thing
Just don’t tell my cats.
# # # #
Who knew??? Even the public library is totally computerized these days. A far cry from the intimidating atmosphere of the Mt.Vernon Public Library where I grew up. Visits to those hushed halls were regular weekly occasions in my childhood. But in all honesty, I haven’t set foot in any public library since I left New York City fifty four years ago. I worked in the City in those days and my office was close to the incredible Fifth Avenue Library. They were always having great exhibitions of one kind or another, and I loved to drop in on my lunch hour, although I don’t remember taking out any books..
The Coconut Grove Public Library is a delightful, sunny, bungalow-style building with a super friendly staff who are more than happy to e-mail you when the book you’ve reserved becomes available. In seconds, they search the computers for some obscure book title. . . anyone remember the long skinny boxes of 3x5 cards that librarians used to paw through when you asked about a particular book???
I have to admit that it took the tanking economy to get me back into the library. I have been living in the Grove for close to 20 years now and have passed the library on my way to the center of town literally thousands of times. I’m ashamed to say I never thought of going in. Now, it’s a regular stop and I find myself taking home some really odd books that I certainly would never buy but just look so interesting, I can’t resist.
At the moment I am reading a book called “Nose Down, Eyes Up” written by the New York Times best selling author of “Walking In Circles Before Lying Down”. His name is Merrill Markoe and I am sure you never heard of him or either book. I certainly never did. The central character in this book seems to be a dog named Jimmy, and according to the Los Angeles Times on the back cover, “it is told with Markoe’s trademark mix of dark humor and quirky vulnerability .” So it isn’t “War & Peace”. I promise I’ll try to read something more impressive on my next visit.
So far, Jimmy seems to have a lot more smarts than Marley and I loved/cried my way through that book and movie. With the state of my stock market account and all the scary news in the daily newspaper, maybe a book about a dog isn’t such a bad thing
Just don’t tell my cats.
# # # #
Photo caption: I stole this photo of the Coconut Grove Library off the internet. It doesn't do it justice. It's what we call around here "very Grove".
No comments:
Post a Comment