February is National Library Lover’s Month, although, for me, it seems to be every month. This month is dedicated to people who love the walls that are devoted to all things bookish.
Before COVID-19 decided to ruin our lives, I basically lived in the Winona Public Library. I was actually there so often that my maps app changed it to ‘home…’ needless to say, my mom wasn’t too happy about that! There is a certain feeling of familiarity when entering a library that is found nowhere else. Between the aroma of old books and the chatter of readers, it seems almost impossible not to crack a smile.
So, if you turn the metaphorical page you’ll find a few things to love about libraries:
1. The familiar smell of dust and old pages
When walking into a library, the first thing I do is take a deep breath. Take my word for it: the best libraries know to place their old books near the entrance. Each book has lived several lives, in several hands, but the ones that have lived the most smell the best. Crack it open, and the sweet smell of musk and old ink wafts out. Some may smell a bit like coffee from a spill that happened years ago, but all these things are saved within the pages of a book.
2. Students chattering with clicking keyboards in the background
One thing that truly makes a library come alive are the people who inhabit it. The hustle and bustle of students reciting formulas, memorizing parts of the body, and highlighting lecture notes all make it come to life. Occasionally, there’s a boy drooling on his econ notes or a girl and her friend watching The Vampire Diaries instead of learning about platelets and the body’s red blood cell count. However chaotic the scenes may seem, the walls of a library somehow manage to contain it all––year after year.
3. Rows of textbooks on the first floor and biographies on the second
Follow the bolded letters on the shelves and it will lead you to whatever genre or author you wish to find—Austen, Bronte, Chopin, or maybe Rhys, Salinger, or Tolstoy. Maybe today you are looking for textbooks. Human Anatomy or Small Businesses Management? Intro to Literature? You pick a topic, and you’ll find a textbook. It’s amazing how one building can know so much, simply by the pages within it.
4. A hot cup of joe or a crispy croissant
If you’re lucky, your nearest library might also contain a coffee shop; fuel for thought is always needed. Does today feel like a coffee day or a tea day? Hot or iced? Bagel or croissant? Small breaks are definitely welcome, and a little caffeine never hurt anyone—a lot of caffeine is another story. I truly think that a library is missing something if it lacks a coffee shop. What else is there to better accompany a stack of books and papers?
5. There is company in silence
Try walking through the endless rows. Try imaging the many people before you. Maybe they were searching for Mary Shelley’s ghost story, the history of Island Volcanos, or maybe they were trying to find their lover’s favorite poet (Was it John Keats or John Donne? Why are there so many Johns)? The authors and the people who read each word are all within those rows. The number of hands that drifted across each spine on the shelf are endless, and yours can follow right after them.
Libraries hold so much knowledge, and for some, they offer a safe space to study and cross things off their never ending to-do list. For people like me, they create a sense of belonging all while providing a peaceful space surrounded by books. When in a library, you quite literally have the world at your fingertips.