Going to the Library with Anthony (and other stories)

Let me just start by saying how much I love libraries.  And book stores.  I just love seeing shelves and shelves of books in any one location.  Libraries are wonderful for a variety of reasons; mainly that they are free, unless you have a bad habit of losing or forgetting to return books.  I spent at least 4 days out of the week in the library when I was in college, and even now, I love getting to campus early to sit in the library and work.  There is something really relaxing, for me, about being surrounded by books.

Libraries are great because every book has a story -- a story within a story, if you will excuse my horrible attempt at saying something erudite -- but it's true.  Each book is there for a particular reason; some have been donated, others purchased for some event or by a particular person, and the best part is each book is used.  That might seem like a strange thing for me to love, but nothing makes me smile more than opening a library book and finding someone else s receipt (I can judge them based on what other books were checked out) or seeing things left behind.  Someone else wanted to read this very same book, for whatever reason, and in that way our lives are interconnected.  I may have checked out the book because I need to read it for a class, another may love that author, another still may have enjoyed the picture on the cover, or picked it up on a recommendation, but each book has its own story.

I went to the library by boyfriend's today to check out a few things.  I plowed through Memoirs of a Geisha (really, anything after Sophie's Choice would seem like an easy task) and I was hungry for another book.  I picked up On the Road, The Naked Lunch, and Food Rules: An Eater's Guide.  And I made Anthony go with me.

Now this may not seem like a big deal.  He was off work and I didn't have to leave for class until 3:30, so we went to run errands together.  (Side Note: Do not take me into discount stores in any way shape or form when I am on a time and budget crunch.  I spent about 10 minutes in Kohl's walking around in 5 inch glitter heels trying to rationalize when and where I would need them.  They were on sale!)  The library was the first stop, and I was amazed to find that some people actually don't have library cards.  Nor do they know the way around the library.  Nor do they want to even go to the library. Nor (I know that's too many nor's) had they ever even been there.  I'm not judging; school libraries are where most students go, but to never have been to the library down the street?  I asked him if he really meant he'd never been to his library, and he replied something along the lines of "what do you mean MY library?"

Am I weird for being surprised by this?  As it turns out, most people do not love libraries to the intense degree that I love libraries.  The way I sometimes talk about MY sports teams (We played horrendously last night, I'm so glad we signed so-and-so) is the way I often talk about books, authors, and apparently libraries.

Growing up I spent my summers at the Jersey Shore, and going to the library was always a treat.  It was air conditioned, and since the house was hot as, well, hell when a west wind blew and the heat index crept up, going to pick out books was a perfect way to spend a few hours. Yes, I said a few hours.  There's just such simplicity in the way a library works.  You 'share' books, but instead of just with friends or family, you share them with an entire county or school or even state, depending on how your (there we go with possessive pronouns again!) library works.

I have class in a bit, so I'm cooling off and relaxing in the library.  I don't like it as much as McDaniel's library, which was beautiful and huge and I stayed in there after hours (I mean, the library was closed and we weren't actually supposed to be in there) several times, but it's my place.  I even have a chair I always go to, and if someone is here one afternoon, I might have to cut a bitch.  Just saying.