libraries

New library bookcases!


aaDSC04267, originally uploaded by susanwrites.

I’m so excited. The new shelves for the library were just delivered and they are even more beautiful that I had imagined. I can’t wait for our carpenter friend to come over tonight to help us attach them to the walls, remove some backings for the electronics and bolt them all together.

Can’t wait to put all the books back on there again!

Friday, October 29, 2010|Categories: Home & Garden|Tags: , , |16 Comments

Follow-up on the Library Lovin' Challenge

Thank you everyone who came by to post a comment in support of the Library Lovin’ Challenge. It warmed my heart more than I can say to see so many people not just pause to say “here” but to actually take the time to share a library story of their own. I have often said that books saved me until I was stong enough to save myself. For so many of us the library was a lifeline, both as children and as adults. We loved  books and felt happiest when we were surrounded by books, reading books or sharing books with friends. We grew up to  be teachers and librarians and writers and so much more. And you all shared that love with me by posting over 200 comments to help me reach my goal.

As a thank-you to library lovers everywhere, I created a PDF of poem about the need for books, entitled, WHERE DO I GO, that you can download here. If you want to read it before downloading, it appears in this blog post.

If you’re interested, here is my original Library Lovin’ Challenge post. It was the brainchild of Jennifer R. Hubbard, whom we know around here on LJ as[info]writerjenn. Thank you, Jenn, for kick-starting this fabulous event!

And here are some of my favorite library stories from the many wonderful comments!

I remember walking home from the Bookmobile, so many books tucked under my arm that I was in danger of toppling over.

I haunted the local library as a kid. They awarded little pins for the number of books read (they kept track) and my little posterboard was covered with them.

I was the kids in the Edward Eager book, walking out of the library with the stack of as many books as they’d let us check out. My sisters & I all took ten each, every week (?) and then we’d swap as needed. Now I thrive because of my local bookmobile–they make life SO easy!

I remember when I was nine and moved from England to D.C the biggest wow wasn’t the snow or the Air & Space museum, which were incredibly awesome– it was the LIBRARY! You could take as many books out as you wanted. I was in heaven!! In England the max was six I think. I walked out that library on my first visit with a stack of books so high! US libraries really are the best!

I would walk across the street to the public library after school and then walk home, walking and reading at the same time. It was a considerable distance as I recall. It took almost an hour, but I would just walk and read, walk and read. It is a miracle I wasn’t hit by a car or didn’t fall into a hole or walk into a wall…I wonder if it would have been a faster walk if I had not been reading?

I think the library 3 blocks from my house saved my life when I was a kid. When I went to buy my house, one of my unspoken assumptions was that it would be a *good* house if it was within walking distance of a library. It is. 😉

I don’t remember a time that libraries have not been in my life- a place of excitement, refuge and knowledge. Our country needs these places now more than ever.

We visited the library every week as a child and I proudly presented my dogeared card to take out the maximum number allowed. Now, libraries provide lifeblood to my work and serenity in the chaos of frenetic lifestyles.

I think the Bookmobile is my all time favorite library. We lived at the end of a long dirt road and there were 8 children in our family. I think the Bookmobile ladies felt sorry for my mom! It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that the Bookmobile didn’t deliver directly to just everybody’s house and that there were designated stops which most people would go to. It was such a gift because getting us to town to visit the actual library was a rare occurrence.

I lived a half a block from the library and every weekend my mom and I would bring home two shopping bags full of books. I practically lived at that library all my growing-up years. I should have known I’d become a librarian!

When I was a newlywed we went to the door one Saturday to be greeted by a local law enforcement officer who had come to collect our overdue library books. How blessed was I to live in a community where the police had time to help out the library and nobody thought that meant there were too many police! I guess I loved those books a little too much!

Libraries: America’s Red Carpet For Immigrants
I know this is true because of how I felt as a newcomer to America.

I spend more time at my library than any other place in town.

My daughter is a new reader at age 5. I’m so thankful that she love reading and that she loves the praise she gets for it. That makes it easy for us. Anything we can do to promote reading among kids and their parents we’re all for it.

I love libraries almost as much as my 6 year old son does! His biggest bday present when he turned 6 was getting his very own library card!

Libraries were crucial to me, too, growing up. Now that I am a librarian, their effect on the education and development of children in our communities is so beyond supplementary – it’s, frankly, a little frightening in this frugal spending environment considering just how much libraries do for people.

The bookmobile saved my life as a kid. We had no money and with the exception of encyclopedias and some harlequin romance novels, no books in our house. It was so cool.

We need Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to become Andrew Carnegie so that libraries would have the funding they need.

As wonderful as this Internet is, it shouldn’t completely replace libraries. They offer something this connection can’t, a sense of the vastness and accessibility of knowledge.

I wish libraries were open 24/7. I love that adrenalin rush when I walk inside the library doors and know the world is waiting for me inside.Thanks, Ben Franklin. You started this and I love you for setting books free!

Sunday, March 29, 2009|Categories: Books|Tags: , |12 Comments

Down to the wire! 17 comments to go!

I am close but I’m not there yet! I need about another 17 comments to reach my goal.

My deadline is noon. I know we can do it!

Thank you so much to all the wonderful folks who have come by to help support our Blogger’s Library Lovin’ challenge. My deadline is coming up at noon tomorrow and I have upped my amount to $1.00 for every unique comment!

So simple….you click on this post , between now and noon (PST) on Sunday, March 29th, leave a comment, and I’ll cough up the cash for my library!

Sunday, March 29, 2009|Categories: Random|Tags: , |0 Comments

only 31 more comments needed

I am close but I’m not there yet! I need about another 31 comments to reach my goal.

Thank you so much to all the wonderful folks who have come by to help support our Blogger’s Library Lovin’ challenge. My deadline is coming up at noon tomorrow and I have upped my amount to $1.00 for every unique comment!

So simple….you click on this post , between now and noon on Sunday, March 29th, leave a comment, and I’ll cough up the cash for my library!

Sunday, March 29, 2009|Categories: Random|Tags: , |0 Comments

So close to my Library Lovin' Challenge Goal

I am close but I’m not there yet! I need about another 65 comments to reach my goal. Please help spread the word!

Thank you so much to all the wonderful folks who have come by to help support our Blogger’s Library Lovin’ challenge. My deadline is coming up at noon tomorrow and I have upped my amount to $1.00 for every unique comment!

So simple….you click on this post , between now and noon on Sunday, March 29th, leave a comment, and I’ll cough up the cash for my library!

 

Saturday, March 28, 2009|Categories: Random|Tags: , |5 Comments

Where Do I Go?

I woke up thinking about libraries and how much they have meant to me over the years. I have often said the books saved me until I was strong enough to save myself. And the idea for this poem came to me….rough around the edges as I just wrote it an hour ago.

 

WHERE DO I GO?

Where do I go
when home is not enough
or becomes too much
to bear?

Where do I go
to find myself
when I am lost
to find others
who are just like me
or not like me
or from a place
I wish I could call
my own?

Where do I go
to take a chance
to follow my dreams
to learn to believe
who I am
is more than enough
for me to be?

I go to books
and find
new worlds

I go to books
and find
new friends

I go to books
and
find myself.

Susan Taylor Brown
@copyright Susan Taylor Brown 2009

The full Poetry Friday round-up is with Julie Larios at The Drift Record.

If you love books and libraries as much as I do, please consider backing up one post in the blog and making a comment to help the cause.

Friday, March 27, 2009|Categories: Poetry Friday, Susan's Original Poems|Tags: , , |16 Comments

Book pics

Just a quick posting of some of the books in the new house. This is the library. The wall to the left of the picture wraps around and there are two more bookcases there plus the TV. On the right there are more bookcases as well. We painted this room red before we moved in. New furniture is on its way, a camelback couch and a pair of leather chairs. Eventually we’ll redo the fireplace mantle/tile. (The entire house was a formal Italian style which isn’t us.)
 

And these are the bookcases in my office.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007|Categories: Books|Tags: |44 Comments