IN Praise of Libraries

I haven’t posed here for a good ten months or so.

Everything kind of blends together after a while, you know? And with the sad realization that the pandemic isn’t going away so much as going undiscussed, I haven’t really been going our or doing things. But I have watched an almost embarassing amount of Kdramas, learned how to make sourdough bread, done some big home-improvement projects, started back to school, and started writing again.

There hasn’t been a lot of reason for getting out of the house (other than groceries and the two weddings we went to this year). And it seems like pretty much any activity that happens outside requires money. Movie tickets for two, popcorn and some Red Vines? In THIS economy? No thank you!

But in an effort to get out of the house more, I recently made the decision to start hanging out in the library.

The public library is a kind of space that could not be invented in this day and age. It came from an era when the filthy rich built things like schools, libraries, and performance halls to make the world a better place (and possibly to keep the rabble from leading them to the guillotines). A community hub and resource, filled with books you could read for free, a quiet place to just exist, no matter who you were. Not only do they have books, they have music and movies and community events like children’s storytime and readings. The library is about to utopia that I’m likely to see in my lifetime.

Growing up, my dad was a librarian at the local college library. I used to spend many hours haunting the shelves in the hours when my mom was doing intermural sports or just needed a break. And the local public library was one of my favorite places in town. I read every book they had on ghosts and hauntings in the children’s area and then moved up stairs to where they kept the paranormal stuff or better yet, the horror anthologies. It was my life-blood.

I even wanted to become a librarian. That was my accademic goal once upon a time, though those jobs are either hard to come by or, in the case of school librarians, almost non-existant. It’s just as well I never finished my degree to move on to the Library Science masters program when I moved to Seattle. One less thing to be frustrated by, I figure.

But in my recent haunting of libraries, I started with the closest one, the local Covington Library where I had dropped off ballots for the last few elections, where I had dropped off some of M’s books when they were due. But I’d never gone inside for some reason. I’m an architecture nerd, and the exterior didn’t really sell me.

But the interior was bigger than I’d expected, and actually very nice. They even had a comfy seat next a gas fireplace where I could work in a notebook and listen to the rain on the alcove’s tall sloped windows. It was a pleasant way to spend a few hours getting some writing done. And it gave my partner some quiet time in the house which has been hard to come by in 2023.

See, my schedule is pretty regimented. For the last several months, I’ve been working from home, but it means that during the week from 8 AM to 5 PM, I’m stuck at the house. Then it’s time to make dinner, unless I have to make an impromtu grocery run, then we eat, have some couples time, maybe watch a bit of televison, then time for bed. Rinse, wash, repeat. On Sunday mornings, I have “writing church” where I meet up with friends via Zoom and we write together for a few hours. Every other Sunday I have games with friends, again, remotely, for several hours in the evening. And once a month I play in a game with friends on Saturday afternoons. The rest of the weekend, I am either taking care of chores like grocery shopping or laundry, or recharging from the week. And somewhere in there, I would find time for homework when I started back to school in the fall.

It doesn’t leave a lot of time for other stuff. But the library is open from noon to 6 PM on Saturday. And if I commit, I can get stuff done there. Like writing. Homework. A long overdue blog post.

This weekend I had some things to do in Maple Valley and on a whim decided to check out their library. Hence this post.

The Maple Valley library was built in 1947 and is awash with mid-century modern charm. Shingled siding on the outside. A U-shaped footprint with a possibly defunct and mossy fountain in the middle (it’s winter, so I wouldn’t expect it to be on, so we’ll see if it’s in operation in the summer). The interior is spacious and well lit with a sloped ceiling and exposed timbers. And there were tables next to the windows with sturdy chairs and outlets in the table-top.

If the venture capitalists got their hands on libraries, I don’t know what we’d do as a society. And don’t think they aren’t trying. Library budgets have been tight. Hours have been cut. Some have closed entirely. In Houston, Texas, they’ve turned school libraries into detention centers. And not in a fun Breakfast Club Saturday detention kind of way.

As I sit here writing, one of my jazz playlists playing in headphones, I look out at the tall trees surrounding this little library tucked into a natural setting and think my dad would have loved this place.

I hope it stands forever.