Were visits to the library an important part of your childhood?

by compound complex 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  compound complex

  Greetings, fellow bibliophiles:

  I remember how sad I was, as a little child, when our beloved Carnegie Library was razed (unsafe, structurally). The same tragedy occurred when we moved to a new town and that similar architectural treasure was demolished to put up a new and gleaming building of steel and glass. Gone was the rolling green lawn where we read under the shade of a huge and ancient oak.

  All the sadness aside, our continued use of literary and musical gems (we had a separate section where we could listen to classical LPs) relocated inside the replacement buildings was what truly mattered.

  While we may find the vastness of knowledge available to us at home through the Internet very useful, still, there was nothing like our first discovery of new and alien worlds within the leaves of thousands upon thousands of books residing in the library's sacred walls.

  Your experiences are requested.
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  carla

  Me & my kids were regulars at the library! Haven't been in awhile but still go on occasion. Our library has a book sale every year and when the kids were little we would stock up on the discarded books. I still have boxes of them and have real difficulty getting rid of books. I guess it is getting easier with adult books because you can always read on Kindle but there is nothing like a real book and a child in your lap.
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  scratchme1010

  In my case was more about lack of access and my parents' lower literacy level, which influenced their decisions around giving us access to additional resources. I was in a mediocre public school system that didn't promote any kind of additional extracurricular activities, and librarians who couldn't be more lazy and careless about actually doing their jobs.

  The JW angle was only one of many in my case.
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  compound complex

  Thank you, Carla, for a wonderful account!

  My dearly departed mom introduced me to literature and the library. Her surviving brother, my uncle, continues to send me books, having taken her place. At Friends of the Library I bought one of Mom's favorites, that originally cost $5.00, way back in 1954. I got it for one dollar.

  That book has taken me back home.
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  compound complex

  Thanks, scratchme, for that insight.

  I can see, through your comment, that having been a born-in (am I correct?), your influences would have been vastly different. Funny how on my mom's bed -- our at-home library -- were scattered Bibles, movie rags, Astrology Today, The Good Earth, The Egg and I, The Watchtower, Awake!, etc.

  Obviously, we were not JWs then!
• 

  slimboyfat

  Yes very much so. I read every book about Native Americans I could find at my local library. This meant persuading the librarians to allow me to use the adult section because they had a wider selection when I was technically too young to qualify. In the end they ordered more books on the subject for my benefit.
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  Bill Covert

  Horatio Hornblower, Max Brand, Zane Grey, "Audel's" tool books, good stuff to escape into.
  
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  jp1692

  They were and still are.

  My love of reading began as a child.

  My older sister, a teacher, has oft commented that I read more than anyone else she knows.
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  Xanthippe

  Oh yes! I fought my brother over who was going to read the Narnia books first. Also Alan Garner books, The Weird Stone of Brisingamen, The Owl Service. Famous Five and Secret Seven books as well. The Hobbit when I was a teenager.

  Then as a teenager I picked up my dad's science fiction books and enjoyed them. So off to the library to discover Isaac Asimov and Atthur C Clarke.

  I work in a beautiful Carnegie library now.
• 

  JeffT

  I wasn't raised JW. Trips to the library were a regular thing as far back as I can remember. I just looked it up, I don't think the library we went to has changed at all. By the time we moved I think I'd read everything they had on astronomy, mythology, and WWII, plus a lot of fiction relating to those subjects.

  

  Even after I became a JW I continued going to the library. By that time I was working for Washington State University and had access to something over two million volumes. I never looked up JW's. Go figure. I still go to the library frequently.