The Room of Requirement
Happy new year!
As a gift to you, I share this episode of This American Life that aired 12/28/18. It's got 2 things I really like in it: libraries and a Harry Potter reference - "The Room of Requirement."
In Act Two, there is a sentiment I find rather poignant. The act had described a library that appeared in a novel but was made into real life, one in which housed only unpublished manuscripts that anyone would bring in. Towards the end of the act, it said to be in one such library "gives you a feeling like you're walking down the street and noticing that everyone has a book they've made tucked under one arm, a jumbled woolly individual transcription of how the world feels to that person. It's the feeling of being able to read everyone's mind for a moment and being startled by their unedited thoughts because they're nothing like yours, but they're just as weird."
The library is a place I love so much but hardly visit. I have a very romantic idea about libraries, much like I have a very romantic relationship with books, pages, and words. I remember dating a boy in high school who would read novels with me, had beautiful penmanship and wrote me letters with it, who I shared a first kiss in an elevator that went up and down, up and down. A boy who ventured with me to a university library in Hong Kong in thick fog, and we shared a headset listening to a band that played a song called "Fog."
Lately, the library returned to my life in a more practical fashion. While I seldom, if ever, hear adults visiting libraries anymore (except college students), libraries are apparently still a place to visit as children. Since I am a mother now, I plan on making regular visits to the library with my little girl and am really looking forward to it. I read Eric Klinenberg's Heat Wave for class this past Fall, which led to me look up his other work. He speaks extensively on the subject of revitalizing public spaces and communities and deeply values the use of libraries (he was referenced in this episode of This American Life in the end). And then, I just binged watched Lemony Snicket's latest and last season on Netflix, which of course, referenced books and libraries because the protagonists the Baudelaires were well-read, intelligent, resourceful and good people.
May your new year be filled with wisdom, affirmation, and adventure.
As a gift to you, I share this episode of This American Life that aired 12/28/18. It's got 2 things I really like in it: libraries and a Harry Potter reference - "The Room of Requirement."
In Act Two, there is a sentiment I find rather poignant. The act had described a library that appeared in a novel but was made into real life, one in which housed only unpublished manuscripts that anyone would bring in. Towards the end of the act, it said to be in one such library "gives you a feeling like you're walking down the street and noticing that everyone has a book they've made tucked under one arm, a jumbled woolly individual transcription of how the world feels to that person. It's the feeling of being able to read everyone's mind for a moment and being startled by their unedited thoughts because they're nothing like yours, but they're just as weird."
The library is a place I love so much but hardly visit. I have a very romantic idea about libraries, much like I have a very romantic relationship with books, pages, and words. I remember dating a boy in high school who would read novels with me, had beautiful penmanship and wrote me letters with it, who I shared a first kiss in an elevator that went up and down, up and down. A boy who ventured with me to a university library in Hong Kong in thick fog, and we shared a headset listening to a band that played a song called "Fog."
Lately, the library returned to my life in a more practical fashion. While I seldom, if ever, hear adults visiting libraries anymore (except college students), libraries are apparently still a place to visit as children. Since I am a mother now, I plan on making regular visits to the library with my little girl and am really looking forward to it. I read Eric Klinenberg's Heat Wave for class this past Fall, which led to me look up his other work. He speaks extensively on the subject of revitalizing public spaces and communities and deeply values the use of libraries (he was referenced in this episode of This American Life in the end). And then, I just binged watched Lemony Snicket's latest and last season on Netflix, which of course, referenced books and libraries because the protagonists the Baudelaires were well-read, intelligent, resourceful and good people.
May your new year be filled with wisdom, affirmation, and adventure.
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