Paula and I loved going to the library in Lexington, almost every week we would go. We would browse the aisles and come back with more books than we could read.
Since the pandemic has started, no more library visits and we also moved to Conway. Books I would lend using the virtual library and then transfer to my Kindle. I also used the virtual library to read magazines on the IPad Pro. The magazines really shine on the IPad Pro.
However we missed the physical visits of the library. Until last week, when we came from a bike ride and saw the Dutch flag flying of the Conway library. Well it is not really a Dutch flag, in the US it it the "We are open" flag. So we stopped and peeked into the library. The door was locked, but David the librarian spotted us and let us in for a quick peek.
Where the library looked beautiful from the outside, it is gorgeous on the inside with a marble-clad entrance and three different book areas: The fiction, non-fiction and children.
It is called the Field Memorial library after Marshall Field, who grew up on a Conway farm in the late 19th century and became a millionaire in Chicago. He then donated a library in honor of his parents to the town of Conway in the early 20th century.
The library is literally a stone throws length from our house, we are on the slope of a hill and the library is at the bottom of it. In the winter when there are no leafs on the trees we can look upon the green dome of the library.
This week Paula and I officially became members of the Conway library. The library system is still using the traditional hand written library card. Lending a book involves taking the book card out of the book and store it together with your library card, stamping both the book card as well as the book with the return due date. According to David they are moving to a computer-based system soon. Well I'm glad to be part of this piece of history while it is still there. Reminds me of my youth, where they had a similar system.
After admiring the library and browsing the fiction and some of the non-fiction areas, took 3 books home... Yes!
Oh, I filed this blog under Travel as in essence that is what books allow you to do.
Books enable you to travel in your head to different locations, times and inside other people's heads.