When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.
-- Marie de Sevigne
Yep.
After Amazon appeared, I always have more than I can read, but back in the day, man, I used libraries so much. It's like a big, free gold mine for the mind.
Update:
TTL said:
Public library is a socialist concept. Like all public sector programs, public libraries are funded by force, using the threat of violence.
I don't like violence.
What we should have instead are book crossing centers. Places where people can leave books they own but no longer need, and where others can pick them up without an obligation to return.
In fact, there is a mini version of this inside a shopping center near where I live. It works marvelously well. So far, I have dropped maybe 100 books there, all of which have found a new owner on the same day. I plan to donate much more.
Eolake:
Yes, that's an excellent idea.
Last time I got rid of a lot of books, I put them in a box in the stair well with a sign that they were free, and they were all gone after a few days.
Earlier, sometimes I have given them to charity shops.
But I'd love to have a book crossing center.
11 comments:
Eolake said...
"...I used libraries so much. It's like a big, free gold mine for the mind."
And I'd like to see our world SUPPORT libraries because MANY MORE generations should be allowed to walk amongst these "gold mines" because there are MANY places in this world - heck, even just in the United States, alone! - that children (and adults) DO NOT and WILL NOT EVER have access to an iPad - let alone a laptop - to buy a book, online!
Children also need tangible books to look through and read in order to learn to love the written word as well as about the world around them much like you were able.
Public library is a socialist concept. Like all public sector programs, public libraries are funded by force, using the threat of violence.
I don't like violence.
What we should have instead are book crossing centers. Places where people can leave books they own but no longer need, and where others can pick them up without an obligation to return.
In fact, there is a mini version of this inside a shopping center near where I live. It works marvelously well. So far, I have dropped maybe 100 books there, all of which have found a new owner on the same day. I plan to donate much more.
Yes, that's an excellent idea.
Last time I got rid of a lot of books, I put them in a box in the stair well with a sign that they were free, and they were all gone after a few days.
ttl wrote: public libraries are funded by force, using the threat of violence.
Huh... I've never been threatened at my local library. The librarians there are always so nice to me! Maybe they are delivering implicit threats so subliminal that I cannot pick them up...
Let's hear it for crossing centers. I used to live in an apartment building (California, USA) where we had exactly that with paperback and hardback books.
We got a new management who immediately renovated the library and a lot of other areas. That was okay, but... They trashed any paperback in the library. Apparently they felt our senior population had to be surrounded by what _they_ thought was culture.
That stupid act was a major point in deciding to move out shortly thereafter.
I'm now at a different senior facility where we have the trading center in full swing. While I may not use it often, it's there and I know I can recycle my old stuff.
Huh... I've never been threatened ...
Try stop funding them and see what happens.
EO and All, you need to check out http://bookmooch.com/
For the tech person that wants to swap books on-line...
I recently started a book exchange at work. Currently it's only our team that's using it. I'd like it to be somewhere a bit more visible and used by the entire floor, if not building.
Still, in the first couple of months things seem to be going well.
What we should have instead are book crossing centers. Places where people can leave books they own but no longer need, and where others can pick them up without an obligation to return.
Oh, yeah, that'll work.
Yes, that's an excellent idea.
No it isn't, it's a terrible idea.
Like all public sector programs, public libraries are funded by force, using the threat of violence. I don't like violence.
You don't know what violence is, then. Yes, when we want to have a society, you're forced to pay taxes and those taxes don't always go to things you'd like. The only alternative is to go off and live like a mountain man. No one's stopping you.
Let's hear it for crossing centers.
Let's not. They're even more of a commie idea than the public libraries ttl hates.
Try stop funding them and see what happens.
You can stop paying your taxes any time you'd like. Just as long as you're willing to give up all the other things society provides. You need a reality check. Bad.
http://goo.gl/EB7a
I think the main problem at least in my country would be getting people to read, period. I have tried to do donations to my public library. I have exactly the books I couldn't find there when I was younger, and I was forced to buy. Their reply? They are not interested in "niche" stuff.
I say, phase out libraries, fire the people, and use the money to give discount on kindles, ipads etc. Of course that will never work in my country because public libraries hire friends of friends of politicians.
Bookcrossing works, but it is still a rare thing.
Post a Comment