By Keith C. Milne
Sadly, over the last decade or so, I allowed myself to stop reading books. Work, work, and more work, and then still having so much to do around the house left me exhausted to a level that even the simple act of reading seemed like it might require too much effort. After all the laboring was done, all I wanted to do was put my brain on autopilot and be entertained.
Now I’m retired and a short time ago I joined the local senior center and have been going there three times per week to work out in the gym. One day I noticed that the “Readers and Thinkers” reading club had just met. I asked the receptionist at the front desk a little about the group and was told that it was a small group of approximately 8 people who gathered to discuss their group selected book of the month in depth, and then decide on the next months book before adjourning. She was so kind and even emailed me a list of all the books the group had read since January 1, 2023. Afterwards, I turned around to leave and found myself facing the small library there at the center. An impressive collection and a lovely room with reading accommodations and computer stations. Comfortable, quiet, definitely created with all of the most enjoyable elements that a library can offer, albeit on a very small scale. But impressive nevertheless.
On the way home that day I found myself reliving fond childhood memories of going to the library in Santa Barbara, CA where I spent my elementary school years. That wonderful smell of books! That muffled, quiet atmosphere. The warmth and safety I felt each time I visited. The joy I always felt from not having any agenda about what I wanted to read, unless I wanted to read another book in a series written by a certain author. Most often, I would go to the library with a completely open mind about what I wanted to read about.
I would spend time going up and down the aisles, reading the titles, pulling a book out on occasion to see the cover art. Oddly, the books I found most intriguing were often completely devoid of cover art, having none at all. An engraved title etched into the hardbound material with no clue, other than what the title conjured up in my imagination, about what might lie within those pages for my young mind to absorb and be swept away by. That caused me to crack it open to a random location and start reading in earnest, attempting to ascertain quickly if the book was going to come home with me, or prove to be either unworthy of my interest, or so far over my head that I had no clue what I was reading. I loved book hunting in the library that way. I would go home with half a dozen books and would return having read them all in two weeks for six more.
I read everything I could get my hands on. I read the 20 of the first 45 Hardy Boy mystery series in print at the time, and a good amount of the Nancy Drew Mystery series too. I read a good chunk of the C.S. Forester “Hornblower” series. I read the classic dog books that made me cry hard, like “Where The Red Fern Grows,” “Call of The Wild,” and “Old Yeller.” Science fiction took me to magical places I never knew existed, but wanted to visit. Old westerns made me glad to live in my current time period, as I imagined what it would feel like to experience the hardships and scary events that were commonplace in the early west as it was being settled. Reading books about the Mercury project astronauts and the training they had to undergo in order to pilot the space capsule as it orbited the Earth made me want to become an astronaut, something that I had a burning desire to achieve until girls became more interesting.
Before I knew it, I was home! Wow, I had no real memory of that trip home even though I was the driver! I had been driving in complete auto pilot mode while simultaneously watching the movie of my past in 4K definition, complete with smells, and the same feelings I experienced as a boy who was super excited to learn that today was the day he would be returning to the library to book hunt once again.
Now I wanted to start reading again in a bad way. No, it was more like a craving to read a good book again. When I checked my email, the list from the senior center receptionist was already in my inbox. The July title: “The Library Book,” by Susan Orlean. I had no idea what it was about, but I ordered it anyway.
When I moved to my current residence, I actually got rid of 98% of all the books I’ve ever bought in my life! I was tired of moving them! Boxes and boxes of heavy books. 95% read, was I really going to read them again? Was I keeping them as a status symbol or a symbol of myself as a learned individual? More likely. I wasn’t able to attend a University until I was in my early 40’s, so up to that point I self-taught myself almost everything I had attained as any type of skill or knowledge, and books were the way I did it.
Getting rid of those books by selling them to local book stores, at a couple of tag sales, and then donating the rest to the local library, was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I just didn’t see any logic in keeping all of that weight around any longer. Not only did I get rid of them, I vowed to stay e-book from then on. I no longer care to stock pile a whole roomful of books in my home when I can now read them anywhere, anytime, on my kindle, my iPhone, my Mac, or any other device.
Books are what physical libraries were invented to house and provide, I do not need to have my own personal library, I’d rather share my books by reading a book and then putting back into the world by giving it away, or just having it as code on a device.
“The Library Book” arrived the next day. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to like it. It didn’t appear to be the type of book I would normally be interested in reading. However, I was completely wrong. The book turned out to be a delight to read. Without me offering you much about the book, as I do not wish to spoil anything about it for any potential readers, Susan takes readers on an amazing historical journey of the Los Angeles public library. Her book is an amazing writing accomplishment. It is extremely well researched, and really fun to read. Susan’s writing is exemplary. Having grown up in Southern California, her descriptions put me right back there. I could totally picture the scenes of L.A. and southern California. She mentions Santa Barbara more than once in the book which brought it even closer to home for me.
Reading “The Library Book,” by Susan Orleans for me was a perfect reintroduction to the joy of reading books again. It took me back to my own earliest days as a beginning reader going to the library for the first time, and hunting for books that took me to places I never knew existed until I cracked open the book and discovered so many new and wondrous things.
Having fond memories of being swept away over a decade ago by Ken Follett’s “Pillars Of The Earth,” followed by “World Without End,” which were both big, thick, 1000-1200 page books that took Follett 5 plus years each to write, I decided to finally read his book 1 of the Century trilogy, “Fall of Giants,” which is approximately 1000 pages long. Already I’m turning pages faster and faster and the 4k, ultra-high-definition movie begins streaming in my mind instantly each time as I begin reading.
Now, more often than not, I have begun feeling the tug of my book while engaging in passive television viewing or content streaming from one of my video subscription venues. Despite the latest computer graphics involved in perfecting the streaming content, I do not enjoy sitting and just watching content anymore nearly as much as I used to, and have noticed now how my mind is completely activated when I read a good book, which is not the case when passively “watching” something.
Between the current writer’s and actors strike, and the growing cost of streaming, I know that as the content to view begins to dwindle in a big way, I know I will be finding my way back to reading, and doing a lot more writing.
If there are a lot of other people like me out there, the strike will take a greater toll on the bottom line of the studios then they imagined, but many of us will save a ton of money by going back to reading, and getting together to discuss what we are reading or have read recently, just like people used to do before “moving pictures” came along.
One of the most amazing places to be any time of the day or night is the public library, which houses the most amazing tales, both fictional and based on historical fact, that millions have yet to discover. But the Most Amazing Movie Of All Time Can Be Seen In 4K Just By Closing Your Eyes And Letting Your Imagination Wander Or By Simply Enjoying The Film That Starts Up While You Read A Book.