esme

A spirit of enlightenment, joy, curiosity, wonder. A sense of kinship with the others. To me, libraries have always functioned as lighthouses – living, breathing monuments to the light of human consciousness. They are places that lost and weary souls can go to in search of relief. Public libraries are one of the things that civilization got really,... See more

It’s currently 2am, and I’m reading in a bookstore that’s also a bar. Why aren’t all cities like this? https://t.co/hsH5tTfTm8

The wonder of public libraries was not lost on Jack Kerouac, who wrote gorgeously about the NYPL in his journals—which, incidentally, I read in the NYPL. And, okay, yes, he was also writing about the Boston Public Library, which is lovely too.

ON BIG CITY LIBRARIES

The two big city libraries that I’ve had occasion to frequent, the one in Boston and

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“what if public libraries were open late every night and we could engage in public life there instead of having to choose between drinking at the bar and domestic isolation”