Remember When...

I remember when, as a kid, we would go to the library.  The Boulder Public Library was very open with a lot of windows, a lot of light, and I can still remember the smell of all of those books.  You would walk up a ramp to the second floor, passing widows and art displays.  Then, to the left, was the kids section.  Shelves and shelves of books, higher than I could reach.  There were bean bag chairs and stuffed animals (I think).  And the librarians were very nice, but best of all...  I used my own card, to pick my own books.  I learned a lot of responsibility from using the library as a kid.  You had to take care of those books and get them back on time - thank you mom! - under no circumstances did you want to disappoint those people by ruining a book.

What happened to wanting to take care of others peoples' things even better than your own?  I still love library books, I love the way the hardbacks stay open, and how the paper smells, but they seem to be used much more harshly than I remember.  Last week I got a book that hasn't even been out that long and was struck by the fact that it was water damaged already.

I understand that we live in Oregon, but come on!  Then I started to notice other things...

I NEVER dog ear book pages, and I would certainly never do it to a book that wasn't mine!  And I often eat while I read yet never seem to leave little morsels behind.  One page was even sparkling with glitter and I just figured that I didn't really want to know.

Sad that libraries are losing more and more money to keep up their building and to buy new books, but then hey have to pay to repair stuff like this?  Pathetic really.  People need to take pride in things like this.