Lisa and went to the library this past week, and have now been certified as reliable to take books away from the premises. There was never any doubt about Lisa, of course. She’s as dependable as they come. On the other hand, the gang authenticated me, too. So make of that whatever you want as regards to their ability to determine moral fortitude and whatnot.
This was mostly Lisa’s doing. She’s the one who uses the library fairly often. When I’m looking for books, I tend to buy them.
Regardless, maybe this means we’re officially here in Las Vegas?
There is something about a library that always feels good. The same way that walking into a bookstore always feels good. I forget that these days because almost all of my interaction with books anymore is via online venues. Even when I’m picking up physical books—usually my own proofs—they are simply delivered to my doorstep. This they call progress.
I get it. Of course I do.
Online markets are so quick and efficient. I know what I want, I get it. Amazing. On the whole, this use-case defines exactly what I want out of your average generic store. But bookstores are not your average generic store. Bookstores require wandering and looking and letting your eyes graze over the spines and covers that lay their like opportunity, waiting. Same with libraries.
When we were all signed up, we took a quick spin around the place. This local library has a great vibe. It’s open and airy and of course there are books. And DVDs and computer areas and meeting rooms and whatnot. It’s on-location catalog seems a little slight, but what do I know anymore? We had other things to do, so we didn’t linger. Still it was interesting to be there again—a phrasing that makes me thing that the term “go to the library” is a thing that implies commonality between all libraries. That if you go to a library in your particular location, you get credit for going to ALL libraries at the same time. That’s how it works, I think. I mean, libraries are connected in several ways, not the least of which is the emotional connect between us people who walk into them.
That’s a thing for the future, maybe.
You put on your VR glasses and actually go to the library to browse, and as you go there you get a read on all the other people in all the other worlds that are not yours who are, at that exact time, also going to the library.