Sifting

Sifting through my books - We know we won't be able to afford a large apartment or house in New Jersey and I'm going to get the volume down to the four glass-fronted bookcases. Gave a bunch to JP - we'll ship them to him. I took four boxes of secular books (gardening, cooking, etc.) to the library yesterday to donate to their book sale. The four or five boxes of religious books I'm going to donate to my parish or find a similar place for them. There's a fellow at work who will know where they can go.

I recalled my life-time love affair with libraries - most people move and immediately try to find the grocery store or liquor store - I hunt down the library. It began in my childhood - the afternoon reward for doing the morning's chores was a trip to the library. I still remember the old Carnegie Library in Greeley - with its massive staircase, railing at my eye-level - it was such an adventure to go into the children's section and explore. I remember my absolute thrill when I was allowed upstairs into the adult section! I also clearly and distinctly remember one summer, when the reading contest involved receiving a shiny sticker for each book you read, which were then placed onto a coloring book page to form a dragon. I was so thrilled and so determined the complete that dragon. I can see it even now, somewhere around 45 years later.

I can't imagine not loving to read. I remember when I was about age 10 one summer, reading some novel set in the arctic, and finishing it and being surprised for a moment that it was warm outside! There's nothing more sad than someone who is proud to have never picked up a book since high school - what a way to limit your life.

I remember the library in Evergreen, where Karl completed the entire summer reading project in one week, and how disappointed we both were to learn that was it, there ain't no more. Paul's never done the summer reading project, apparently feeling that it was beneath his dignity to have to be bribed to read. Our local library here was a bit of a disappointment - the shelving was awkward, with young adult non-fiction in the adult section and the fines were absolutely draconian. The big library downtown was fascinating, but too difficult to get to. The worst library was in Woodland Park - limited collection and sloppy shelving. The best was either Brush or Cheyenne - probably Cheyenne.

I never did find a good used bookstore here, either. There's one downtown - again, hard to get to and with ridiculous hours. I heard rumors of one way far north, but even I'm not interested in driving 20 minutes to shop for used books. Not that I need any more books ...