I dream of a library…

Growing up, my first library was the local kirana(grocery) store that used to keep a big stack of Hindi comics like billu, pinky, chacha chowdhary, phantom, commando Dhruv etc.

Characters from my first ‘library’ books!

Then from 2nd grade onward it was school library, where I got introduced to Noddy, Ruskin Bond, Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew, Heidi, black beauty, little women and many more. That was also when the nearby book club had Tinkle, Champak and Chandamama. In junior classes we had to sit on the ground around a low table and in senior classes there were proper table and chairs… I so looked forward to library period, half an hour of stories! 🙂

The school library has been left far behind and the local kirana store is now a toy shop… The college library is largely accessed online to use digital journals and I miss being able to sit in a library with other readers and little whispering among groups and the librarians putting finger on her lips and saying ‘shhhhhh’ much louder than the whispers :). The little posters and signs talking about library rules that are rarely followed! 🙂

The library rules that were seldom followed!

I dream of a library. My library. Dark wood paneled, carpeted, racks spanning the length and breath of the walls, a moving staircase to reach the upper books, one big arm chair, an ottoman, a small round table with small stools for the kids, a big glass window with a sitting allowing in a lot of light and a place to stretch the legs. That’s how I dream of my library.

This picture is the closest to what I have in my mind for my home library!

And so I am working towards the dream… I look out for 2nd hand book shops to find old editions of popular books… I love the feel of previously read books, and sometimes you even come across a message by the previous owner telling its own story! But iPad and kindle are threatening this dream of mine…My partner says should stop buying physical books… I can see his point, every time we move, our heaviest item are the books… The more books we buy, the greater will be our carbon footprint on each move (we move almost every two years). Now a days there is an e-solution to everything… E-readers, e-books and e-libraries as well! It’s as if the computer is gobbling up the books!

the books are all disappearing! 😦

I still want to keep that dream alive. May be I will hoard slowly.