On Libraries

National Library Week is being observed April 11- April 17. Many of us book lovers also love libraries, and this is a great time to celebrate them. A visit to the library is such a sensory experience for me - the sights, sounds and smells all serve to give me instant pleasure!

Which is why, it is with sadness that I note that our county is seriously considering closing one or more branches of the public library system due to a budget shortfall. I hope to make my opinion on this matter heard by voting in the referendum May 4th.

I have fond memories of the various libraries that I have patronized since my childhood. However, one of my favorite libraries is a fictional one - the library in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, a great must-read book. Without giving too much away, this library is part of a medieval abbey, architecturally an extremely complex structure, and is also central to the story. According to William of Baskerville, the leading monk-sleuth and his sidekick Adso,

"The library has fifty six rooms, four of them heptagonal, and fifty two more or less square, and of these, there are eight without windows, while twenty eight look outside and sixteen to the interior!

And the four towers each have five rooms with four walls and one with seven...The library is constructed according to a celestial harmony to which various and wonderful meanings can be attributed..."

Now, what I would give to visit that library! Well, at least one can dream of visiting one of the great libraries pictured here, I guess..