Urban Libraries Suck

I Lingered at my neighborhood library for about twenty minutes this afternoon; fifteen minutes longer than it should have taken me to realize there was nothing there to justify the effort of coming back to the library. The "adult" section - it was actually labeled as such - was in a sad state of affairs. I counted three shelves of Danielle Steele novels, and every Robert Ludlum book under the sun, but nay with anything approaching a worthwhile read. A perfectly good library filled with roman de gare...

I'll dispense with any pretense (taking into account I just used the phrase 'roman de gare' in a poor excuse for a sentence) and admit to my own hypocrisy here. I realize I'd rather purchase a book than borrow one, so I have contributed to the decline of neighborhood libraries in a very real way. It's just that witnessing the state of such valuable resources really makes me regret my lower middle class obsession with owning things. Especially in these times when forking over twenty dollars for a book becomes less attractive every day.

On the bright side, everyone patroning the library looked to be between eight to fourteen. I bring this up because at least fifty percent of the books were labeled 'children.' Which doesn't appeal to me but maybe it's a good omen for the future of education in our country.