Tonight, I went to my alma mater's library, after being notified that my alumnus card was ready to retrieve. I had been meaning to request it for quite some time, and finally got around to it earlier this week. I've missed going to the library, where so many students are intently studying. It feels like I'm wandering hallowed shelves of learning, where everyone is intent on finding information that will satiate their mental well.
Okay, okay - by most people's standards, the library's really more for socializing. (If you don't believe me, check out the "missed connections," on your local college-town's Craigslist.) Admittedly, some people work on group projects there. But, for the most part, it's not for finding books. This means I can check things out, without feeling too guilty about keeping them the whole 1/2 semester.
After picking up my card from the circulation desk, I trekked up another four flights of stairs, to the general stacks. That in itself should tell you something about the usage of the library - to get to the majority of useful books, you have to go to the very top floor! I instinctively found my way to the women's studies (read: feminist) section. I tend to have a lot of fun, browsing through that section.
Some of my female friends say that they never took a women's studies class because they live the inequality every day. I haven't taken one, either. But reading the books is one of my guilty pleasures. I giddily picked through, limiting myself to only three. I would've taken more, but I always feel a little funny, parading up to the circulation desk with a stack of titles that reads:
Full Frontal Feminism, Marry him: The case for settling for Mr. Good Enough, The female thing, and
things like that... well, I feel like they would think I'm an obsessed, radical feminist - or like I feel like a victim, hence my fem-loaded book selection.
So, I limited myself to three from there before moving on down to some of the other social sciences. I ended up with three more from the psychology section, and one from marketing. I made myself laugh (out loud) with one of the last ones. Its title is Compulsive Acts: A psychiatrist's tales of ritual and obsession. It made me laugh because when I came across it on the shelf, I already had five books. I thought it looked interesting, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to find another book to go along with it... because, you see, I like checking out an odd number of books. That one would've bumped me up to six, thus leaving me with the need for one more (or to discard one from my pile). I stood there laughing over my own odd ritual. Thankfully, I found a seventh book quickly, before I laughed too loudly.
When I went back to the circulation desk, my barcode number needed to be changed on my account. I knew the girl who had to make the change on it from classes; she asked why I needed the books. I told her that I was just getting them to read, for fun. She looked at me like I'm nuts. I was still too giddy to care. Ah, I love libraries.
Comments (1)
NO way they use the missing connections on craiglist this lol wow... lol great blog! Yeah I love our library here where I live! :)