Book days #d?

As a kid I loved the public library in our town. The summers could get up to 105 and the ac in that library was always 60 degrees. It was a very clean and organized place. I used to go and listen to records at a table with those huge earphones and just watch people come in and out. I would look at all the magazines. I'd order books through an interlibrary loan system and could get titles sent in from San Antonio. I was a master periodical guide and card catalogue user at a young age. I was there for books though and would come home with a dozen every week. During the summers I'd enter the reading contests for my age group and would win those and win most books read in all age groups. I was a winner four or five years straight (sadly, that wasn't hard, not many others to compete with).

The best part was checking out the books and coming home and putting the books on my bed and reading them on my bed, carrying them outside, taking them in the car on trips and just being able to take them wherever I'd go. It's hard to cuddle up with a lap top and books on a monitor. No matter what gadget they'll invent in the future to read info, I could never get into because I love hard backs. Hard backs. Paperbacks are practical and I like them but I like to get my faves on hard back and set them on a shelf and move heavy boxes of them in and out of apartments and carry them in a bag and have them weigh heavy on my shoulder.

I work in front of a computer all day and my eyes are red, no matter what sort of new ergonomic screen or contacts I try, eventually the eyes get all red. So I don't get those who prefer their info on screen rather than in print. I have to have the article in my hand so I can read it. I can't read much info online out of a work place.

Digital libraries are supposed to save space and be more efficient. When I enter a bookstore I am reminded of my old library. At a Barnes and Noble I hear muzak, smell coffee and new books, the ac is cold enough, and people sit in comfort reading and take books home. Maybe one day there will be book salons, sort of makeshift libraries, more privately owned libraries opening to offer the public sanctuary among old books. Fahrenheit 451 would be hard to understand in a future of digibooks. I like to hold a real book.

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