I shouldn't tell you this because the number of kits is limited and I want them to be available to my book group. When I checked the website last night there were 38 kits, down from 39 a couple of weeks ago when I was searching for a kit for my group. 39 might seem like enough, but the fiction always seems to go first. I couldn't get what I wanted. To my horror, I was forced to check out a memoir.
Damn if it didn't turn out to be fantastic. (The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.)
And damn if that isn't what a book club is for--opening your eyes to something you weren't looking for.
I expanded my library horizons, too. I usually go to the Central Library but the kit I wanted happened to be at the Linda Vista Branch. I'd never been there before. Now I know a new quiet spot to work. I don't know where the coffee is (there's got to be coffee) but isn't the children's area cute? That furniture takes me back.
15 comments:
How I like to see kids read! I remember my school library. Dirty, yes, but so full of treasures, like the book "EMIL" by Lindgren.
Yay books! Much as I love libraries, Petrea, your photo made me wince. I've spent far too many four hour meetings crammed into tiny chairs like that at Junior schools.
My favorite environment. A library with lots of light for the little darlins' -- couldn't get any better.
"Treasures" is the word, Italo. I read "Pippi Longstocking" but not the Emil books. I wonder if our local children's section has the Lindgren books. I hope so.
Dive, you must tell us why the meetings of fancy British architects take place in itty bitty chairs.
I'll be honest, Kate--I prefer the soft light of a lamp to the fluorescents. But if the kids are happy and it gets them reading, I'm all for it.
I love this shot, but you know how partial I am to libraries. I practically live at the South Pas library. There is a leather easy chair there that seriously needs my name on the back of it.
I've never heard of checking out kits for book clubs but what a great idea.
And a new memoir rec, too. Cool!
Petrea, I design schools for a living and while building works are going on we have to have meetings in whichever classroom space might be free. All too often it's been in a junior school room and only the chairman gets to sit in the teacher's chair, the rest of us have to squat with our knees up at chest level on tiny chairs like these. It's always fun to start with but as the hours roll by it gets a little wearing and we end up sitting on the tables. Odd but true.
Four turquoise ovals like Transporter pads, ready to be energized and whisk little minds off to faraway places …
Laurie, the city of South Pasadena should put a plaque on the chair for you.
Dive, I never knew! Lucky children, those who will attend the schools you design. Too bad you won't be designing their furniture.
Right now, J, I wish I had a picture of the library in my elementary school. I do have many pictures of it in my mind. It was definitely my launching pad in many ways.
As a kid, my local library was my refuge. My first big event was getting my very own library card at age five. I was so damn proud! The kids' room was in the basement and was full of little tiny wooden chairs. Then, as I got older, and braver, I climbed the staircase to the adult sections. I hung out in the stacks reading old newspapers bound into huge volumes. I read books as a young girl that would make some people cringe even today! For someone poor, it was a door opened to a larger world I might otherwise never get to see, but the librarians were indulgent of my curiosity. I am forever grateful to them - and my first little library card.
Oh, how funny. You got me going through the library file in my brain, and there are so many and I remember them so well. I still take out books from the Children's section; a good story is a good story.
Speedway, that's a whole personal essay right there. Very nice.
Hiker, I still have copies of some of my favorites, though I haven't read them in years. Italo has me thinking I should pull out my Pippi Longstocking.
Sounds weird.
I'd love to have an adult version of those chairs.
It's kind of like what we have. Not quite. Ikea.
Petrea--other than the SoPas library, this was the next best place to hang out in the heat of the summer when I was a kid. Don't remember the train table...but it's been just a few years since I was in that room...I'd bet a few things have changed!
Trish: funny you should mention two libraries so (relatively) far apart. Did you ride your bike?
Maybe they just seem far apart because the freeway separates them now.
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