My local branch of Paradise

I have always imagined Paradise as a kind of library.
--Jorge Luis Borges.

This is my neighborhood branch library, only seven blocks from where I live. I open my laptop, ask for whatever book, CD, or movie strikes my fancy, and they deliver it at no cost to me, usually within a few days, to this sweet little building with fanciful colored glass and tile touches, built in 1929 as a luncheonette. It later became a hardware store, a wine store, and in 2001, a library. I know all this because I asked the reference librarian today. Libraries are surely one of the great aspects of civilization, and this little building is one of several very good reasons why I live where I do. I think I may have mentioned this before (or maybe TerriG mentioned it), but the Portland library has the second-highest circulation in the USA (after the Bronx, which has much higher population). This city reads. And our library is truly rich and well-stocked.

I went there today to collect my latest windfall: Seamus Heaney's Beowulf (both the book and the CDs of him reading it himself), a more recent Heaney, and two volumes of Ted Kooser's poems.

It just happens that this morning my friend Darlene sent me a link to a charming little fifteen-minute animated feature about the love of books and writing, and that not only reminded me of how much I love libraries and books, it also got me yearning to go back to New Orleans for a visit this year. I haven't been back since Katrina. I'd love to be there and feel it, smell it, walk it again, maybe soon. I've got an income tax refund coming that might just cover the cost of the trip. Sometime when you have fifteen minutes to spare for being reminded why you love books, click on that link. It's nominated for an Academy Award, and you'll see why.

Apologies for all the cars in the picture. I waited a long time to get a shot without cars, but it's a busy corner, and there is always traffic.