Good Reads

Cicero is quoted as saying “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Now I realize that he lived long before the days of modern necessities like internet and cars and adult beverages, but he really has a point about the library. Calder and I spend every Monday afternoon in a corner of our town’s public library (the same corner, each week, which…there should be a plaque, right?). He rustles up an armload of books in the kid’s section while I do the crossword and flip through art books. I love the smell of the place, the whispers and the rustling of the newspapers in the adjacent Periodicals room. I often see the same elderly gentleman snoring softly in a chair in the back, and there’s always a group of teenagers texting furiously over their schoolbooks in the lounge. Sometimes it can be social, and I get to catch up with friends who are there with their kids, and sometimes I see people I know, working alone at a table with their laptop, and I wonder why they chose the library instead of the office, or their home. So many stories under one roof.

While there today, I realized that I am woefully behind on what’s new in the literary world. I’ve had a few good recommendations, but I need more (and please don’t say the Millennium Trilogy). Leave a comment with your favorites, whether new or old. One random commenter will be picked to receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble (which flies in the face of the whole library thing, but we are nothing if not consumers). Thanks for any suggestions!