Sanctuary Between the Shelves

I made myself a small promise this year: I would write more blog entries. At least two a month. I’d also try and do some kind of quasi-podcast. There may be a test of this coming up.

But this means I must generate more content! So, I’ve decided to use some of my time at my favorite cafe to talk about a childhood sanctuary.

One of the truest moments in Stephen Gould’s novel Jumper is the first time our protagnist jumps. He leaps out of the grasp of his abusive father and into a safe place: the local library. When this book came out, I devoured it and kept it close to me. Gould captured something here that many kids from less-than-idea families would learn. Not teleportation – but the sanctuary of the Library.

For me, that library was the Little Falls branch of the Montgomery County library system. It was a fifteen minute walk from my home, straight down Massachusetts Avenue. My earliest memories were going through the books there with my family. There was a spinner rack with SF Paperbacks downstairs by the kids section. I would ignore most of the things there, and instead picked up my first real grown-up novel: Han Solo’s Revenge by Brian Dailey.

When my kindergarten class had a project to make books, I wrote one about a robot and his robot dog living on a desert planet. The robot’s dog was dragged under the sand by the evil creatures living there and he had to go on an adventure to save him. There were explosions at the end.

Half the book was filled with my scratchy drawings. The other with my little kid’s prose. When we took it to get copied before my Baba Jelka sewed it into a cheap cloth-covered binding, the librarian helped me with the copy machine. It was a huge, hulking thing. We talked about the Han Solo books and other science fiction works. She was impressed a five year old kid had finished the Han Solo book.

In later years, I’d discover there were gems in the kids section. This is where I developed my love for John Bellairs, which continues today. I still have the copy of The Mummy, The Will, and the Crypt I got from the Scholastic book sale with the Edward Gorey cover. It was my second read through. I devoured the hardback copy the library had earlier.

Upstairs, the other librarians helped me find Andre Norton’s space trader books. They had a very 80’s set of covers, with a big Discovery style space-ship on the front. This is where I also started my Michael Whelan reading list. I’d seen his art books in the Waldenbooks and B. Daltons. So, I started reading all the books he had illustrated. It’s how I read McCaffrey, Clarke, Clayton, Asimov, Heinlein, and Burroughs.

Back before the latest reconstruction, the SF Hardbacks were literally tucked away in a corner, by the water fountain. One alcove was completely enclosed, with a single overhead light, and a round wheeled stool you could sit upon. I lived there as often as I could. The alternate was going home to my family. I preferred this family.

To this day, I will hop back to Little Falls just to see how its doing. Coming back to Maryland, and Montgomery County in particular, let me reconnect with the libraries here. Now, I have access to the Rockville Memorial library, where one of my writing groups meet. The Germantown and Gaithersburg branches have hosted writing sessions.

The last writing session I had at Gaithersburg, I saw folks waiting out in the freezing air for the library to open up. Within ten minutes, it was packed with folks reading, studying, talking, using the computers, teaching others… Anyone who thinks they can be replaced by a mega website has never truly understood what a social hub and community center those big ole buildings of books represent.