I am not a literary expert by anyone’s stretch of imagination but I love libraries; they have been interwoven throughout my adult life.
When I was a student at Colorado State College I worked at the library as work-study employment. My job was to shelve the books. Upon arriving for my shift, I would find the rolling cart where someone else had placed all the returned books, and off I would go – putting books back into their correct Dewey Decimal home in the “stacks.”
I loved going to work; the smells, the quiet air, the intellectual ambiance, the dark mystique of rows and spaces. Mainly I liked to touch the books and wonder around the stacks looking at titles.
Thirty years later I lived for nine months in an old schoolhouse bed and breakfast, Noftsger Hill Inn. The owners allowed me to use the library room for my counseling office. I refinished the floors and shelves, bought black leather furniture and an abstract rug, and hung my shingle. It was cozy, and I felt secure and empowered within it’s walls.
My Book in the Copper Queen Library in Bisbee, AZ
In 2002, I purchased and restored an old Carnegie Library. It became my home, a bed and breakfast, and my counseling center. For eight years, it was my safe place, my happy place. I decorated with books and named the rooms after former librarians. It holds the stories of my courageous clients and interesting guests? It was gloriously awesome!
One of the thrills in my life was doing a bit of research at the Harvard library. Sitting in the big oak arm chair at the massive oak table I felt like a little peanut who had just been promoted to organic butter. I remember it clearly; climbing the stairs, smelling the book scents, feeling the smooth wood I’m my skin, the cool air, and my shallow breathing. Little ole me was walking the halls of wisdom.
I visit libraries whenever I get the chance. Carnegie libraries are always on the top of my list, but today I am enjoying a wingback chair on the second floor of the Copper Queen Library. It has the same familiar, intense attraction.
I can’t imagine life without libraries to rescue me from the world, or physical books to touch; it would be so hollow. My prayer for today is, “Dear Lord, please let me die before libraries.”
How silly of me – I know there must be libraries in Heaven.
