Never Gets Old

...that feeling of having a bag full o' books from the library. It thrilled me when I was a kid and it still thrills me now.

(My cute bag says,"Read a Book, Save the World, Take a Nap.")

Local Library Love

 

I love the public library--this is the book return slot (temporarily turned into this robot). 

Library in a Library

 

How cute is this seed library inside our local branch library? You can take two packets a week, and there is a mix of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. The idea is that you take these seeds, plant them, and then take the seeds from your plants and return them back to the library. 

Shelfie

 

When the public library looks like a shelf of books... (Kansas City, Missouri).

Mini, Horse

 

Today a miniature therapy horse named Hershey Kiss visited the local library branch, and of course I had to go see him (I was the only adult there without a child, LOL).

Look at his heart-shaped nose! 

Here you can see how small he really is. His owner told me he rides in the back of her mini-van (not in a miniature horse trailer. And when I left the library, there he was, in the back of her van. Too cute!

Pass the Books

Our new neighborhood library--many years in the making--had a grand opening on Saturday. They had a "Book Brigade"--1,800 people passing the "last" 200 books (they were clearly selected for the purpose: paperback classics). The last book to be passed was The Hobbit.

I went to the library today--while it is very, very nice (much bigger, with more seating, study rooms, community rooms, a Friends of the Library shop, etc.), I will miss the old and small midcentury (1961) building.

NYPL Magic

The New York Public Library: so cool and amazing any time of year, incredibly festive at Christmas!

Geometry

Geisel Library with moon (and without!).

Little Stack o' Heaven

A big ol' stack of fat library books, just waiting to be read...oh, yeah!

Summer Reading

The public library's summer reading program has ended, and I got some prizes! Yay (yes, I am an eight-year-old!).

When I was a kid, I LOVED the library's summer reading program. My mom will tell you that I never won because I was reading "chapter books" rather than picture books, so I didn't read 57 like some of the other kids, but it didn't matter because it was FUN!

To this day I still keep a notebook and write down everything I read, month by month. It's nice to look back over the year and see what all you've read.

Mobile Books

A bookmobile! I haven't seen one in ages...I love that books come to you, and I hope there will always be bookmobiles...

Da (Yarn) Bomb

I love a good yarn bombing...and this one is quite cool! It's at the University Heights Library--apparently this group has done other bombs as well (read about it here). Fun!

Le Bibliothèque

 On Saturday--a perfectly beautiful blue-sky day--we got all dressed up like grown-ups and went to the grand opening/dedication ceremony for our new downtown Central Library. It's fancy!

 The dome, which deservedly just won a national engineering award. This library is more than 500,000 square feet, twice the size of the one it has replaced.

 The 7th and 8th floors are a charter high school...wow, can you imagine going to school here?

 It has nice lines and shadows!

 

 The interim mayor, Todd Gloria (we had a spot of bother with the previous mayor...). The city librarian, Deborah Barrow, is seated to his left; Kevin Faulconer, who would like to become the next mayor, is to his right.

 The architect, Rob Wellington Quigley.

And Ms. Senior San Diego, Michele McDougal, was there, in her tiara and sash! There's hope for me yet!

We didn't get to go inside because the wait was an hour long...and we had somewhere else to be--tune in tomorrow!

An Age-Old Profession

(No, not THAT profession, silly!) I'm talking about book binding. B. and I paid a visit to Frank Lehmann, a book binder, an artisan/craftsman who basically follows the same procedures as bookbinders have done for centuries. His tools are amazing, and quite beautiful. (Those above and below are for stamping leather bindings...)

 Rolls of paper for endpapers...

 Gigantic paper presses...

Various tools of the trade...

Twine/thread to sew up printed signatures before binding.

So very cool...I have the utmost admiration for those who carry on the noble traditions of the past: if they aint' broke, don't fix them. Carry on!