BBC Radio 6 Music video

Today a friend on Facebook, with whom I taught many years ago, posted a video about libraries that come from this location. It is called " I love my local library and all of its quirks " and is narrated by a British man whose voice sounds vaguely like Russell Brand. It is a delightful pseudo-poem of about two minutes and it made me think about my own love of libraries, buildings that have "had The Hobbit 70 years before this fellow's local cinema! From my earliest recollections I can remember Mom taking me to story hour at the NYC library branch at 23rd and 7th. It is still there and the children's reading room is still up the beautiful wooden staircase on the second floor. Mom sent my brother-in-law looking for me once, when I went to get books and didn't return as soon as she thought I should. He found me reading in one of the big soft chairs in that room. At all through grade school and high school and into college I used the library card I'd gotten there as soon as they'd let me have one. I'm sure that card is somewhere amongst the old things in a box somewhere--at least, I hope I didn't throw it out. I can remember bringing home a shopping bag full of books and taking them back two weeks later--some to be renewed, others to be replaced. I've never gotten over my love of hard copy books and the buildings that house them or the comfy reading rooms they provide. I've spent many a winter's evening reading before the fire in the library in St Albans, Vt. And I've volunteered at the Peabody here in Post Mills. I loved the card catalog--in its own marble entranceway in the State Library in Albany, New York where I worked in Graduate School. Milestones to the library I now have in my own home, which is overflowing into every available corner. I'll never own a Kindle or a Nook, no matter how convenient. I travel with a canvas bag of books and buy more along the way. Thank you Mom and Dad, you do live on within me through the habits and values you gave me in childhood. I married a man who loves books as much as I and our daughter follows in our footsteps. All because Mom took me to the reading hour and read to me when we were home. Dad taught me to read before I ever went to Kindergarten. Oh, yes, I love libraries, too!".