Friday, January 27, 2006
Booking It
Blogging live from the Johnson County Library today. Not much to report. Tons--literally tons of good books. The first thing I do when I move to a new town is get a library card. Here in KC, I have three: one for the burbs on the Kansas side, one for KC, MO proper, and one for the Mid-Continent system (sort of the suburbs on the Missouri side). Everybody should use their friendly neighborhood public libraries. Often.
When I lived in the NW suburbs of Chicago I'd often get to Rockford for a diocesan meeting. Instead of taking the Northwest Tollway, I'd drive the back roads, mostly US 20. Marengo was a nice little town (I hope it's not a suburb of Chicago yet) in those days and had a charming old building devoted to housing the town library. I recall periodicals stuffed onto shelves, a musty sort of smell, and not much in the way of technology (it was only 1991, after all) but it was a very enjoyable place to read a book.
I was reading about that Laker season ticket holder who had a birthday party to attend and missed Kid Kobe's 81 points last week. Turns out that 44 years ago the same guy had scored tickets for the Knicks-Warriors clash at Hersheypark Arena. But one of his profs scheduled a test the next day, so he gave the tickets away. That was the night Wilt netted 100 for the home team borrowed from Philly. Two players. 181 points. One no-show common to both.
Well, friends, the ladies of the house are quietly reading books in that other corner over there. I'm heading to the fiction section to hunt down a few reads for the weekend.
So go stick your nose in a book.
