“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” ― Jorge Luis Borges
One such paradise happens to be near my home. What's the big deal with having a library in the neighborhood, you might ask. Having grown up in India, my only access to library in my childhood days happen to the one run by the government with not much of collection to boast of. My mother was a pretty much regular visitor and would check out tamil novels from there.
Later on, the most sophisticated library I had access to was my college library but then that was full of academic books. I badly wanted to visit Anna Centenary library at Chennai but somehow I never managed to.Then we moved here to USA and I found a library near my home. There are libraries in every locality and it is like a part of the local community.
The first time I visited the library, I was awed at how big it was for a local library, the neatly organised shelves and reading area, self check out and return facility, a 100 books at a time, online catalog and access. What more? A membership gives you free access to check out e-books from Overdrive and you can request for any book from the network of branches and they bring it your branch for pickup. And they conduct storytime, fun sessions, informative sessions for children and adults everyday. There is a bookclub too that meets regularly I believe!
All this raving might seem overhyped but its actually my desperation of what we miss in India. People of India, the government or whomever - we need these first and the McDs, Subways and Walmarts next!
Yes, I recently took membership in our apartment library and i am already enjoying it!!
ReplyDeleteHappy reading Bingo :)
DeleteThese days there are excellent libraries in India too, Gayathri. Granted - they are not free and they are probably only in the major cities, but they are not bad at all.
ReplyDelete