Thursday, June 01, 2006

Comfort in Books

I read a lot...well actually I listen to a lot of books. At home we have no fewer than ten bookshelves and every one is full of books. I haven't read them all but I take comfort in knowing they are there. We have books on Yoga, books on natural healing, health, finances, computer (a bunch of them), on writing, on cooking, architecture, history, and tons-o-fiction.
I've read that the Great Library of Alexandria had over 500,000 books (they were actually handwritten scrolls as printing presses and ink jet printers had not yet been invented). But these scrolls contained a world of knowledge that was lost when the library was destroyed by fire some time in the third century B.C. Can you imagine the knowledge we lost to those flames. The loss of the library is widly considered to be a great loss to humanity.
A while back, Jilda and I took our niece Samantha to the library and spent the better part of a Friday going through books, magazines, and music. We needed a shopping cart when we left.
The Birmingham Regional Library (Central Library) is a great place to go to do research on almost any subject you can imagine. When I spend time there I feel smarter.
I know that you can find a great deal of information online, but the experience of actually visiting a library is much more fun.
If you have kids, I suggest that you pack a picnic lunch and take a field trip downtown to the library.

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