Library – Love or Loathe?

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » 09 Sep 2011, 17:01

Fran wrote:@Gannon
Regrettably I think you are probably right but that will just mean that your library will become 'a wonder of the World' in due course ... so get those Lotto numbers played! You'll compete with Ayers Rock for visitors!

On an optomistic note though I think e-readers may actually increase the numbers reading in that younger kids (especially boys) are inclined to feel that being seen with a book is not cool and they fear being labelled 'a nerd' but using an electronic device may be seen as 'with it'. So maybe there is an upside ... lets not be too pessimistic.

You raise a very good point there Fran. Maybe there is a silver lining to this cloud. I try hard not to be pessimistic but I can see maybe 100 years from now(if we are still around) a father showing his children a book encased in a glass housing in a museum.

Bighuey · Post by **Bighuey** » 09 Sep 2011, 18:49

Reminds me of that movie, The Time Machine, the part where Rod Taylor went into that place and picked up a book and it crumbled into dust.

Ant · Post by **Ant** » 10 Sep 2011, 13:00

I do both, I like the feel and smell of a crisp new book but when I go to the library I'm like a kid in a sweet shop, there's such a choice!

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 10 Sep 2011, 21:20

I'm both a borrower and purchaser. It depends upon the book and/or my mood at the moment. I've borrowed from a library only; borrowed then purchased; purchased without having first read.

The smell of a new book is nice, certainly; but I prefer the smell of older books. There is just something...there. Almost as if I can smell a time past; I wonder where such a book has been, who has enjoyed and benefited from it.

But then, I'm a hopeless romantic anyway.

Libraries and bookstores are two places that are difficult for me to tear myself away from.

Maud Fitch · Post by **Maud Fitch** » 11 Sep 2011, 00:28

Lonestar wrote:The smell of a new book is nice, certainly; but I prefer the smell of older books. There is just something...there. Almost as if I can smell a time past; I wonder where such a book has been, who has enjoyed and benefited from it.

Gannon wrote:.....Maybe there is a silver lining to this cloud. I try hard not to be pessimistic but I can see maybe 100 years from now (if we are still around) a father showing his children a book encased in a glass housing in a museum.

I sincerely hope we are never deprived of the smell or feel of real books, for example as described in a semi-humorous excerpt from Jasper Fforde’s “Shades Of Grey”. (There is a small chapter on pages 87-91 entitled The unLibrary and Eddie Russett walks into this library which isn’t all that it seems, in fact, it’s basically not a library any more. The faithful librarians have acted as guardians/custodians of The unLibrary by memorising the book titles and barcodes).

To quote “She moved swiftly to another wholly empty bookcase. ‘This used to be the crime section’ she said. She tapped a finger at the various points on the shelves and barked out the titles of books long since extinct. ‘The Most Serious Affair At Stiles’ she announced ‘Murdoch On The Orientated Ex-Best, The Glass Quay, A Mist Simile’s Foaling In Snow, Gawky Park...’ I (Eddie) looked across at the other librarians who were nodding to themselves as they attempted to memorise what she was saying and thus somehow perpetuate the knowledge. It seemed utterly pointless, but also, in a curious way, noble. ‘...The Science Of The Slams’ she continued...”

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 11 Sep 2011, 04:14

Lonestar wrote:I'm both a borrower and purchaser. It depends upon the book and/or my mood at the moment. I've borrowed from a library only; borrowed then purchased; purchased without having first read.

The smell of a new book is nice, certainly; but I prefer the smell of older books. There is just something...there. Almost as if I can smell a time past; I wonder where such a book has been, who has enjoyed and benefited from it.

But then, I'm a hopeless romantic anyway.

Libraries and bookstores are two places that are difficult for me to tear myself away from.

Welcome back Lonestar ... been missing that twinkling star in a while.

Bighuey · Post by **Bighuey** » 11 Sep 2011, 08:51

I like the smell of the old bookstores. There was one one in my home town that had been there since about 1915, there were old dusty books stacked up on the floors, in corners, on tables, in boxes on shelves, no kind of order but fun to go through. I found a lot of cool books there, including some sci-fi magazines from the 1930's and 40's. Ill never forget the smell of the place.

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 11 Sep 2011, 15:33

Fran wrote:Welcome back Lonestar ... been missing that twinkling star in a while.

Awh, thank you, Fran.

StephenKingman · Post by **StephenKingman** » 12 Sep 2011, 07:21

^ Yeah great to see you again, shine on you crazy diamond

A24 · Post by **A24** » 12 Sep 2011, 07:36

I love to go to my local and county library. I tend to get a lot of books on CD from the library because they are so expensive to buy and I listen to books constantly on my work commute. I also borrow a lot of books from our church library which has quite a selection. I don't buy books that often, except now on my Kindle. The problem with the library books is that I just don't have the time I wish to read. Then, I seem to owe a lot in late fines. My husband jokes that I helped fund the new addition to the library! I just love walking into a library though just knowing that I could have any of those books for free and read until my heart's content! I envy those girls that work there that actually get paid to read all day!

Bighuey · Post by **Bighuey** » 12 Sep 2011, 09:07

I passed up a good deal about 8 years ago, I kind of wished I would have done it now. There was a small town in Utah that was having a yard sale, they had tools, antiques, all kinds of stuff at reasonable prices. They had a 14 ft. flatbed trailer full of old books, books from the 1800's, some first editions they were selling for 25 cents apeice. I made a rough count of the books and there were about 1200. I asked the guy what he wanted for all of them, he said 200 dollars. I had the money in my poc ket, he said I could even hook the trailer up to my truck and take it home and bring the trailer back. I almost decided to do it, but I got to thinking. I had absolutely no place to put them, I already had close to 1000 books and a 55 foot trailer and a 35 foot trailer packed from one end to the other with junk, and there was no room in the house, there were 7 of us living in a small 3 bedroom house. So I turned it down. I bought a few of them, some first edition Edgar Rice Burroughs, first edition Winston Churchill. I wish I had got them all now. I had some old junk cars I could have put them in until I found a better place. Oh well, live and learn.

Bookworm2011 · Post by **Bookworm2011** » 12 Sep 2011, 11:54

@Bighuey, I can see regretting the decision you made, I'm one of those people that really think about what I'm doing before buying something. I would jump at the chance to buy all those books but afterwards I'd kick myself for spending all that money and not having the room for the books. Like you said you live and learn, and maybe you'll get another opportunity like that at some point. That's what I love about yard sales - no shortage of cheap and good books.

Bighuey · Post by **Bighuey** » 12 Sep 2011, 19:03

@ Bookworm, Thats true, you can get them at yard sales for almost nothing now. Thrift stores are pretty cheap, too. If I had bought all those books the mice probably would have got them, I didnt have a good secure place for them. I had a lot of old books and magazines in our basement and the mice ruined them. No sense in having anything nice if you cant take care of it.

Bookworm2011 · Post by **Bookworm2011** » 13 Sep 2011, 10:07

@Bighuey, very true about no bother in having something if you can't take care of it. I love my books I would cry if they got ruined by mice or anything. I always tell my boyfriend he has to be careful when handling my books.. there is no just throwing it around when it is in your way.

Maud Fitch · Post by **Maud Fitch** » 13 Sep 2011, 22:39

A24 wrote:...I just love walking into a library though just knowing that I could have any of those books for free and read until my heart's content! I envy those girls that work there that actually get paid to read all day!

Ah, I bet every librarian in the world wishes that were true!!

On a sad note, while the world mourns the tragic loss of life on 9/11, the twin towers of the World Trade Center were also home to twenty-one libraries which were destroyed including the Journal of Commerce.

Lost forever are letters written by Helen Keller and forty-thousand photographic negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by the president's personal cameraman, sculptures by Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin plus the 1921 agreement which created the agency that built the World Trade Center and tens of thousands of records, irreplaceable archives, historical documents and art works.

Two weeks after the attacks, archivists and librarians gathered at New York University to discuss how to document what was lost, forming the World Trade Center Documentation Task Force.

If you are interesting in reading more from Cristian Salazar of Associated Press (e.g. the CIA had a clandestine office on the 25th floor) search under news.yahoo.com Lost Records mystery-surrounds-loss-records.