Musings on Libraries

It's Friday evening already. We have had a short week and the hours from Monday to now have gone by faster than I can blink. Yes, these days, time hurries by so much faster than when I was a schoolgirl, and the hours then between Monday to Friday were interminably long.

I have happy memories of Fridays back then. My Dad would wake me every morning with a cup of tea and a smile and on Friday mornings he would always say "its TGIF Day today". That meant "thank goodness it's Friday" and I would have a little thrill of anticipation knowing that on Fridays Dad would come home from work with a small treat. Usually it was sweets, but sometimes he would surprise us with a fresh pineapple or some grapes, and a few times he arrived home with a big box of comics!

Fridays after school for me were spent at our local library...I used to go for the heavies in those days...the thicker and heavier the book, then the more value for my dollar. I lugged home War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Tess of the Durbervilles and many others .....the more tragic, the better.

I could have the books for six weeks and then renew them if I hadn't finished reading.

It is very different in our library now. Definitely not as user friendly and we can only loan books for three weeks.They can not be renewed until (this is the crazy thing) the next day.They have to go back on the shelves first. They don't have the latest releases and most of the librarians there don't seem to enjoy their work very much.

Mindful of having to return my books this week, I have been catching up on some reading and have enjoyed reading about Albrecht Durer. In fact it was one of his prints that was my very first art purchase way back in the seventies. We still have this, rather faded now, but I love it.

This is a self portrait as a young man in Venice


and this is his father. He looks rather tired and sad, maybe a little grumpy too. He certainly doesn't look the sort to bring home treats on a Friday night.