at the library

 there are few spaces of greater peace for me than the library.

Ever since my first visit to my hometown library,... the library is a place of peace and awe to me.

I am still awestruck at all the books, together in one place... and yet only a fraction of what has been published through the centuries since the invention of the printing press.

It's like home. Cozy, temperate, with lots of places to sit and peruse the bound copies.  I have memories of wandering through the stacks. Stopping when I found a topic of interest then, arms laden with books, heading for a reading carrel... oh the interesting things you can find.  I could get lost for hours, no days....  

Books have been the one true, satisfying constant in my life. 

My earliest memories of books in the living room of our house, from the time I could understand anything at all....  I was given access to children's books as a small child, and taught to respect - not to do any form of damage to the books. My mother enrolled me in a book club, so that I got a book in the mail - addressed to me - every few weeks.  She gave me a book about phonics that was geared to young readers, and I could not even read at the time, but I would sit for hours looking at the pages.

Later in life, traveling for work, with time to myself on the weekends... seeking out used bookstores, just to soak in the warm feeling and the scent of old books. Whiling away the time browsing through myriad and miscellaneous titles.

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