I’m leaving in a few minutes to drive to my hometown (9 hours away, not a short hop). I’m doing this today – on this particular weekend – because they are having an author’s event and as a hometown girl I want to participate. Plus, I believe in local libraries. The Hopkins County – Madisonville Library was ‘my’ library growing up. It’s where we learned how to access microfilm and use interlibrary loan for research papers. It’s where books we would never have seen in our local bookstore were on display. It was a temple of quiet and calm and reading! I have even fonder memories (no research papers attached) of the library near my grandparents. They lived on a plantation in northwest Mississippi and the next but one nearest town was Ruleville. (As an aside, Ruleville had a population around 3,000 and it was the BIG town.) When I was in grade school we spent every day of summer break at my grandparents, and I spent a good number of those days at that library. I remember it as a lovely modern brick building with small courtyards. My memories are so precise and pleasurable that I have never tried to find a real image on-line, I risk being disappointed. In this era of digital and on-line everything I still believe in libraries. As an author I hope they stock my books, that they encourage reading, and provide a place for people to reflect and find joy. Take a look at your local library and see what they offer…. then stop by for a visit. I suspect you’ll enjoy it.
