Love Letter to Libraries

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

I want to recommend a book that’s been around for a few years, but I never tire of going back to it. It’s called The Public Library, a photographic essay. And it’s a celebration of America’s public libraries. It features 150 gorgeous photos by Robert Dawson. And it also has essays contributed by Bill Moyers, Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, and others.

But, Grant, my favorite line in the whole book is from Barbara Kingsolver. In her essay, she writes about how her local librarian helped her catch the scent of a world beyond anything she’d ever imagined. And she says getting to read about other people’s lives snapped her out of her surly adolescence. And she writes, I’m of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.

Oh, I love that. A fearsome mind to throw my arms around librarians. And it helps that one of them is my mother-in-law, who is a lovely woman.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, she’s a great librarian. And she worked for years at a great library in Grinnell, Iowa.

No kidding. When you first started talking, Martha, I thought you were going to say, there’s a building that I keep going back to, and it’s the public library, because that’s true for me and my family. When we travel, not only do we go to museums and parks and zoos, we also often go to libraries, sometimes just in between other appointments, just to see what they are. And sometimes they’re ordinary buildings, sometimes they’re amazing, but sometimes they’re astonishingly wonderful with little exhibits in the foyer of local art and local authors. And sometimes the children’s reading areas are so adorable. There was so much care taken and little crafts that the kids have done with whoever is in charge of the area. And they have such personality and it’s a great way to get a read on a community in a town that sometimes you don’t get even at the local museum.

Well, if you’d like to share a story of a librarian who’s made a difference for you, or a library that’s made a difference for you, give us a call 877-929-9673 or send us an email. The address is words@waywordradio.org.