Wish This Library Was In My Town

I'm sure I have many, many followers who are fans of Civil Engineering: The Magazine of the Society of American Civil Engineers. This month's issue has a cover story on a pretty amazing library in Binhai, China. Actually, it sounds as if its atrium is what's pretty amazing.

Now, I didn't read the whole article, because I saw the word "truss" several times, as well as phrases like "dynamic elasto-plastic time-history analysis." But what's going on, basically, is that this central atrium has shelves that are
also steps and walkways and seating.The upper walls with their shelves bend inward, as you can see in the picture to your left. It's pretty spectacular looking.

Now, I'm no engineer. But I looked at those upper walls and couldn't see any way to get to the shelves on them. I thought, well, the shelves must be accessed from behind. Good idea, Gail. According to the CE article, that was the original plan. But they only had three years to build this thing, so the rooms on the other side of the atrium walls were ditched. The upper shelves hold fake books. There are more traditional library rooms in the building with more books.

The builders and planners were interested in creating a site for gathering, as well as for archiving books, and they've certainly done that. It's hard for a book person not to be excited about the way the Binhai Library turned out.

So What Do YOU Do With Found Time?

This is what happened, folks. Friday night my plans for today, Sunday, changed. A family event was moved to the end of the month. In the meantime, today was free. That changed what happened yesterday afternoon, too. Because the cooking I was planning to squeeze in to yesterday afternoon after a morning elder care visit could be moved to today. You know, today, when I had nothing. Do the math. I suddenly had a day and a half to do what I had originally planned to squeeze into a half a day.

That's like...that's like having forever.


So when I stopped at the library after leaving the nursing home yesterday, instead of just dropping off some books, I stayed. For over an hour. I kept thinking, I can do this. I can stay as long as I want. Because I've got tomorrow.

The Cragin Library, where I was yesterday, has been one of my library haunts for years. I thought it was okay, but I was so wrong. You know how journalists keep saying that Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton stun because of something they're wearing that half the time is just so-so? Yeah, yesterday, the Cragin Library stunned.

Look to your right and check out these New Fiction shelves in their Adult Department. That's a bench in front of it. Like the benches you see in museums in front of a work of art. Except the works of art here are books. You can make yourself comfortable while you're going over a couple of hundred new books. I love that. I have sat on that bench. Not yesterday, though. Yesterday, I had a different kind of experience there.

Yesterday, it was as if that library knew my interests.

First off, I picked up three books from the Young Adult department, one of them being My Life in Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald. I had heard of that and brought it home because it appears to have an environmental thread.

Then I went wandering around the New Adult Nonfiction (where there isn't a bench) and came upon a book on minimalism that, again,  I had heard about a few months back. Next I saw a book of essays by someone I'd never heard of, but they were supposed to by amusing. And I write essays! What showed up next but a book on writing flash fiction that looked pretty good. Guess what...I write flash fiction, too.

Then I go down to the Children's Department and pick up a couple of things including Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say. Now that I'm going to try to use for a speech therapy project I'm working on with an elder.

I finished up at Cragin's used book sale, where I got three books, one of them being Brave Companion's: Portraits in History by David McCullough, because I'd really like to read more history. Some history.

It was an amazing library visit, just amazing. I came home  drunk on books, unable to decide what to start with. I'm still overwhelmed and after cooking for a few hours today, I spent a couple of hours this afternoon reading old newspapers rather than decide where to begin with my library treasure. I have an embarrassment of riches here.

This weekend was a big one in Connecticut for children's lit activities. I could have used some of my found time to head out to an event. I feel a tiny bit guilty about that. But, in reality, I suspect nothing I could have done would have been as terrific as that library trip.