My mum is a reader. My sister is a reader. We used to spend hours in the public library, or in the book store. My dad would sometimes drop us at the mall when he had business meetings, but he always knew where to find us (pre-cell phone days) because we were almost ALWAYS in the bookstore. When I was little, I liked to pretend to be a reader. The funny thing about pretending is that sometimes you become what you pretend to be. (Something about, ‘act how you want to be, and you’ll be how you want to act…)
I have a weakness for buying more books… even when I haven’t finished the last book. And for tea…but that’s another story (although I suspect it goes with books…)
In college I worked in a library, and then another library, and then after college I worked in yet another library. Sadly it was a lot less of the above, and a lot more of the below…
And so when there was less with the books and more with the UPS…that sometimes led to…
ILL Warriors!
And …whatever that is…
Ok, there was actually some real work in there too. At the time I sometimes got really restless and bored…now I sometimes miss it. It’s a toss up.
What I definitely miss is this. My personal library. Having moved across the country, I ended up leaving the majority of my books in boxes in my parents closet, and I miss having them at my disposal. I miss being able to just grab the one I’m in the mood for, and I kind of miss just having them around… kind of like friends, comforting paper people.
I feel very at home with books.
I am not alone.
“Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.” ~Thomas Jefferson
“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ~ C.S. Lewis
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” ~Groucho Marx
“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.” ~Helen Keller
Perhaps someday I’ll contribute to the library of literature. Until then, I read, and write, and read some more.
Cheers,
~M.R. Berry