Of Heroes and Books
Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors, and this quote from him, which I read in an article in the NY Times (A Literary Ledgent Fights for a Local Library), has just endeared him to me that much more:
“Libraries raised me, I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
While I don't actually make much use of the library, instead electing to borrow books from friends, or spend what little spare cash I have on acquiring books to keep for my own, in a way building my own library, I understand the importance the library plays in the lives of people who either can't budget to buy their own books, or aren't privileged enough to be surrounded by people who also enjoy reading. Also, while my reasoning for lack of faith in the colleges and universities, I can agree with both his reasoning for lack of faith in them, as well as identify with the sentiment due to my own experiences.
Also mentioned in this article is his dislike of the internet. This makes me sad, as to some degree the internet serves the same role that libraries do, making information much more available to the masses. I can understand that it's sometimes hard to sort the signal from the noise, but the same problem can arise in the library too. I used to spend time in the Castro Valley library, when I was growing up, but it didn't take me long to get frustrated there as once I started looking for good science fiction, all of it was only available by transfer from other libraries, and most of what I was looking for was usually checked out from the other branches anyways. I didn't have the patience to wait for these books to come in, so I sought other sources for my reading material.
They're currently building a new library for Castro Valley, and so far the building looks pretty cool, so I may actually go check it out when it opens. Who knows, I may even start spending more time in the library again if their book selection has improved and expanded since I last gave them a chance. However, I am a lover of books. I don't like reading them and letting them go. I like collecting them. I like being able to go back and pick them up at random to find quotes, or to be able to hand them over to a friend to share the love, knowing that I'll get my book back having introduced it to someone new, and to have shared its knowledge.
I hope to one day eventually have a proper library room in whatever house I settle into long term. A comfortable room with big plush chairs, a nice window to let just the right amount of afternoon light in to read by, and floor to ceiling bookcases. Being the dork I am, there will likely be a library room computer, with a way to catalog all my books in it, possibly using a :cuecat as a barcode scanner.