Dang. I wish I was still in college, walking through the stacks, running my skinny fingers over ancient books. The boys and I wandered around Stanford today, and I dragged them through the reading rooms of the beautiful main library, up through the floors of the stacks, past the little carrels. It smells exactly the same -- dusty and dry, ike medieval battlefields maybe or French poetry. I wished to be twenty again, a boy just around the corner, my books at my hip, the smell of everything that was and everything that was to come.
Wait till your own kids are in college. It is hard not to envy their youthful exploration and freedom. The only thing that stops the envy is the uselessness of it. And happiness for them. In other words, I so know what you mean.
ReplyDeleteOh! Me too! That feeling of all the world being available to know. All of our lives being available to live.
ReplyDeleteYes.
You look so happy and at home among those stacks of books!!
ReplyDeleteDamn, that was a beautiful, beautiful post. Many thanks. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Love to see you smile!
ReplyDeleteYou look like you are in your element :)
ReplyDeleteNo more card catalogs, though.
ReplyDeleteI've never been in the library at Stanford, though I stayed very close to there in Palo Alto when I first came to CA and I live just north of SF. Looks like you all had a fine day on the peninsula. Next time you venture to the Bay Area we must meet in SF for a cuppa' and a chat. x0 N2
ReplyDeleteThat's what I miss in the era of e books - the smell of books. Some books are moldy or smell awful but many of them smell great - grassy or powdery or sharp from the ink.
ReplyDeleteI spent my day in the Special Collections of my uni library, poring over 17th century scientific illustrations for an exhibit I'm helping curate. It IS heaven.
ReplyDelete