If you want to know the state of a nation's economy, walk into your public library on a weekday afternoon. If it is anything like Canton, MI you will find it full of middle-aged people on the computers, browsing the aisles or just passing the time flipping magazines. The parking lot is full and in some strange way, it feels like you are at a carnival.
-My law firm has started sending us presents again. This gives me hope. And a sugar rush.
- I have seen people shopping in the non-sale sections at shopping malls. In grocery stores, the carts are looking more full and I notice non-essentials such as vegetables packed along with the essentials like Twinkies.
-Restaurants are packed. If people are eating out, that means they can still afford to and that the teenagers of America still have jobs and teenagers spend all their money!
You might be one to look at Goldman Sachs recent rebound and get excited but such market trends are highly suspect. Instead, just take a look at your neighbors and the average person. Once they are convinced that this country is on the upswing, this country will be on the upswing.
But moving on to more exciting topics. All this recent time spent at the public library takes me down memory lane...
I love to read. I have always loved to read. My best memories from my childhood are sitting in a big stuffed pink bunny rabbit with a pile of ten books next to me and reading until my parents dragged me away. I used to even read my book while riding on my bike around the neighborhood. I was hooked. There were the Goosebump books, the Sweet Valley Twins, Boxcar Children and the Babysitters Club. There was Ramona Quimby and a slew of other imaginary characters. Anais Nin said "I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live." I completely agree but when we are young, I think sometimes we read to escape to a world in which we can live.
Do you remember the summer reading programs at the library when you were a kid? I used to get so excited about them. I lived for the freebies they gave. And they gave them for reading!!! What a fantasy world we lived in. I coveted my bouncy ball or ice cream gift certificate. If you read the maximum amount of books you might be so lucky as to get a free book! I never had my own books as a kid and when I got one it was like a secret treasure.
Welcome to 2009. Now days the library is giving out prizes like WII systems, iPod touches and a host of other techie toys that will assure kids are in front of the tv or lost in a set of head phones. It seems a bit counter intuitive but that didn't stop me from inquiring about the age limit for the program. Teens, you say? How about 19-year-olds? (Hey! I could pass...)
The one thing i love about the library here, is that in my zone there isnt a library close by so they have a book mobile come every friday. So all i have to do is go online to reserve my books and send it to the book mobile which parks across the street from my building...so i've never been to any of the libraries here in tdot...which is kinda sad in a way....
ReplyDeleteA book mobile sounds magical! But I get what you mean. There is something about walking through aisles and aisles of books, finding one and sitting down right then and there to read it. It is also amazing to watch little kids in the library. You can actually see many of them falling in love with reading right in front of your eyes. It is enough to make a cold heart melt!
ReplyDeleteI would rather borrow a book from a public library than buy those glossy brand new books, you know why? Because those glossy books don't smell like those old ones.
ReplyDeleteBut you know what is even better than that?? Buying a used book from the library! I love having books. My room is full of them and I have boxes of them stacked all over the place. It will be so cool when my kids pick up the same books I did and leaf through those same pages. And hopefully they will pass them on to their kids! What better inheritance is there to leave?
ReplyDeleteI can't get enough books! I have boxes in the attic, mostly bought used with wishful thinking of time to read all of them, or just stare ar their beauty. And yet even though I have tons that I haven't read yet, I still can't stop buying them! Miss you...how are you send me an email soon~ XO
ReplyDeleteBy the way...are you back in town?????
ReplyDeletelace- yes! we are here until around the end of august. we are in and out of town a lot though but i really would love to get together. i am still dying for feraz to meet the kiddies. how is your schedule looking? miss you. xoxo!
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