One of my favorite pastimes – and who wouldn’t have guessed – is reading. Ever since I was able to hold books, I was fascinated by their haptic and their content, starting from my first children’s books to the art books that my parents let me leaf through when I was pre-reading age. Today, I have accumulated a list of way over 2,000 books I have read (many books are not listed for I forgot their titles, as I not always wrote down what I was reading at the time). And, again, you might have guessed it: I haven’t ever owned every single one. I have almost always been an avid user of libraries.
I got my first library card when I was eight. For whatever reason that was the age when you could ask for one. I was proud as Punch to check out my own books – and I was probably one of the few kids in my class who made use of such a service. The downside to going to the library without an adult guardian was that I was supposed to read the books that were meant for my age group … well, I complied a few times. But my parents understood my curiosity and knew that I had started reading young adult novels a while ago. I mean, we were a reading family, and I grew up listening to my parents reading all kinds of literature to either the entire family or to each other.
When I thought of taking up my first job, guess where I applied! Of course – the local library. I was 14, and I would work one afternoon per week for 2 Deutsche Mark an hour. It wasn’t a fortune money-wise, but it meant entering the working world, getting more self-confidence, enjoying an environment from behind the scenes that others only knew as readers. It meant responsibility and visibility in the world of grown-ups. It meant being taken seriously. It meant working with treasured objects. I was only able to do this for a year; after that school took up most of my time, and studying was more important than earning some extra pocket-money.
There were times in my life after that when I almost lived in libraries. The one at my university faculty held books that were not meant to be borrowed. So, I sat there for entire days and studied and took notes from books that I knew were rarities. Or I went to the state library, which was way less fun. There you chose your books from index cards held in file cabinets. Myriads of index cards in hundreds of file cabinets. Then you sat in the cafeteria and waited for the books to be collected for you from the library’s catacombs. More often then not, not the entire order could be filled. And sometimes you were sent to the reading hall to receive a book there because it wasn’t supposed to leave the premises.
When I became a journalist, my daily agenda collided with library opening times. That was when I bought books like crazy. All of you, who have read my former column, “Home from Home”, know that I had to give away loads of those when I moved this side of the globe. Immigrants have to sacrifice a lot of their material goods – later “traveling lightly” gets a habit. At least it did with me.
Coming to Steilacoom, later here to Lakewood, I have become a library reader again. I hugely enjoy the opportunity to come across books that otherwise wouldn’t catch my attention just because I’d never heard about them. Of course, I still buy books – most often because I know the author personally and am plain curious about their latest. Sometimes, I win a book or I get one as a gift. But most of my reading adventures hail from public libraries.
These days, we are lucky some are open at all – the librarians offer curbside service! I haven’t tried it yet, and currently I’m good with reading material. I will try the new service sooner or later, of course, though I cannot wait to stand in front of a shelf again and look at the treasures of wisdom and entertainment. I think public libraries are essential businesses for a lot of people like me. For some it’s an actual lifeline, for me it is an opportunity to let the mind wander and to learn, to distract myself from the daily imbroglio on the news.
As our librarians struggle to upkeep the service, let me just send a warmhearted salute to the keepers of media that have been changing the world ever since the first one was written. They have so much more on their hands these days than “just” cataloging and keeping the place in order and whatnot. They help keeping us sane while doing their best to keep us (and hopefully themselves) safe. Simply: Thank you!
Nice thought provoking article. Now I understand why you are so much smarter than me.
Like you, I have kept a list of all the books I have read, but I only have 8 titles on my list.
Like you, I love checking books out from our library, but I dare not enter the hallowed hall, because my unpaid library fines are at fellony level at just under $3,800.
Thanks for your article.
Joseph Boyle
You made me laugh out loud, Joe! You and unpaid fines?! You are the last person I’d presume this about.
Same thing with your book list. You know, it really comes in handy. It has happened that one book started looking so familiar after a while that I checked back with my list. Indeed, at one time I had read the German translations whereas here I’m getting the originals!
Books ! My passion. When I landed in the U.S. in1956 my one suitcase was half filled with books, no kidding.
I want to commend the Pierce County library department for the system they have developed for readers to get books at the curbside. Great job !
I am now reading all those books for the second or third time. That virus ain’t gonna get me down, no siree.
Mr. Boyle – how many years were you with the sheriff’s department, 8 or 25 ? Thanks. Also thanks for the insight on the sheriff’s race.
Dieter
Mr. Boyle,
How many years where you with the sheriff’s department, 8 or 25 ? Thanks.
Dieter
DIETER MIELIMONKA, I do not understand to point of your question, but my answer to your question is 25 years if you count approximately 2 years of reserve service before and after my 23 years of full time paid service. Approximately 25 years.
I was just having fun with my library comments. Actually, I am always hot to pay my library fines even if they are around 30 cents. If truth is known, my library fines are always paid up to date.
Thanks for commenting.
Joseph Boyle
What a bizarre “comment” on my library article, Dieter! Really?! Somewhat out of place …
Mr. Boyle,
Jeepers, what have I done ! I always enjoy your articles and am impressed by your career and knowledge. In no way did I mean to allude to library fees, good grief, you joked ! My question about the length of your service was to clarify it in my mind.
I wrote a comment on my reading habits that somehow disappeared.
If I somehow offended you, I apologize, but I don’t know for what ??
If you want to call me, to clarify things further, please call.
Regards,
Dieter Mielimonka
I remember when the Steilacoom Library was built and it is a gem. I’ve always loved the Flora B. Tenzler Library and was saddened when she felt her name had to be removed from it and other buildings. But the Lakewood Library is still an excellent community resource.
A strong sense of melancholy: That’s what this article evoked in me as I was reading it and got further and further into it, Susanne. I had not thought back to my own early years of learning to read and going to the library for many years — decades, really.
My babysitter MaryAnn Morrow would cuddle with me under a quilt in her bed and read from a tiny set of books to me when I was so little. It was fascinating and mysterious — so special. My sister Kitty, who was seven years older than me, also helped me learn to read long before I ever went to school.
And those early trips to the library were extra special — just as you described too, I might add. I, too, remember regularly checking out the ‘limit’ of the number of books.
We lived on a farm in a rural area. Valley Chapel was a non-denominational church that sponsored a Vacation Bible School that was held each summer at the local library. Those two weeks were something to look forward to because most of the kids from school would also attend VBS and it gave us all an opportunity to reconnect, read and create fun craft projects with popsicle sticks, paste, construction paper, etc. Simple, innocent fun. The library was a focal point for all. And remembering back to that time of our lives, didn’t it seem as if each summer lasted forever? I used to cry on the last day of school each year. It seemed as if it would be an eternity before we would all be together again in the fall. Now, of course, it seems that the world spins ever faster day by day.
All through high school I never ate lunch with the other kids. The library was across the street from our school. I had planned on a career in medicine, i.e.. to become a physician. Instead of eating lunch, I spent every lunch period at the library reading every book I could get my hands on to study more about anything and everything related to science, medicine, anatomy and healthcare. I was also enrolled Honors level courses in English, German, and Latin (what are now called Baccalaureate classes).
But your article also brought something back to mind about an incident where I was sent to the principle’s office and held in detention for a book that was apparently too lurid for a 7th grader’s eyes.
The book was confiscated and I was punished by having to stay in his office on detention for quite some time (at least two weeks, as I recall).
The book was Tropic of Cancer. Too much lurid sex in it. (But then, how much is just enough?)
Not that there wasn’t any sexual activity going on in our remote rural farming community. In fact, during my detention, I had inadvertently walked-in on an intimate moment between the grade school principle and my 7th grade teacher in an intimate moment when they were in the Teacher’s Lounge on a sofa while they were kissing and with his hand up under her skirt. They were both married — but not to each other. Who knows? Maybe they had been reading my copy of Tropic of Cancer?
So Tropic of Cancer didn’t seem over-the-top even to my eyes as a 7th grader back then. But as it turned out, the U.S. Government had even banned the book in the United States.
“Tropic of Cancer has been described as “notorious for its candid sexuality” and noted as responsible for the “free speech that we now take for granted in literature.”
Anaïs Nin helped to edit the book and Obelisk Press published it with financial backing from Nin, herself, in 1934 in Paris, France. The book’s jacket was wrapped with a warning that read, “NOT TO BE IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED STATES OR GREAT BRITAIN.” Even in liberal Paris, bookstores sold the novel under the counter; but as word spread, copies were bought by American tourists and smuggled home disguised under dust jackets from other books.
The government of the United States made it national policy to ban Tropic of Cancer from being sold or imported into the country arguing, “[it] dealt too explicitly with his sexual adventures and challenged models of sexual morality.” To push their agenda, the government went on to ban all of Miller’s works from entering the United States, regardless of its content or subject. — Quoted from the website Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge
Wow, what wonderful memories! And thank you for sharing them – you are evoking pictures in my mind with your vivid descriptions!
As to “Tropic of Cancer” – I had to laugh out loudly. I read it, too, but in my early twenties … and found it long winded. But so had I thought the Kings’ dramas by Shakespeare in grade 7 (I read them privately); I loved the raunchy double entendres of “Romeo and Juliet” so much more.
Actually, your memories evoked another one of mine. During grade 8 and 9, I was quite a loner. I took books from our public library to school and read them sitting in a corner by myself, while eating my sandwich and apple that my mother gave me along for break time. Books are a marvelous comforter and escape when one is not so happy.
I enjoyed your article ever so much and your reply to my long-winded comment. It appears as if we may be cut from the same cloth. 😉
One never knows where one meets kindred spirits 😉