I love libraries.I love the smell of books.I love to hear the whispers and murmurs that have a special resonance when heard inside the libraries. I love the sight of books neatly arranged and thrown around in heaps.Each library has it's own personality.Most public libraries in India are not well lit.They are dark and damp.Some are excellent.They have very high ceilings.They are airconditioned and have good amount of light.They have comfortable chairs and canteens.But the fundamental character of any library is determined by the qualities of the people who visit.Till my seventh standardI didn't hear of library.My first affair with the library started at a residential school,Triveni Academy near chennai where I joined for eighth standard .As I was away from home for the first time and being a pampered kid I was terribly home sick.I found solace in the library.Library became my home and librarian my guardian. The librarian took a liking for me and made me feel as if i am one of the books.I got hooked and this addiction has continued.
The libraries can be broadly classified in to two.(1)The libraries at academic institutions and meant for researchers and scholars have a totally different personality from those (2)frequented by the general readers.The first types are dry and haughty.They exude knowledge and the consequent arrogance. But the other type not infected by the professional intellectuals is full of wisdom.It is motherly and engages the reader unconditionally.The readers of the first believe they know a lot and visit the library only to substantiate and to find support for what is known to them.They have a defined purpose and they confine themselves only to the books and fail to feel the library as an entity in itself.whatever pleasure they have in reading is incidental and purely intellectual.The second type of library has readers who wander in without any agenda.They simply love to read They know all about the librarian and staff.They feel humbled by the wisdom stored in the books.Although passionately opinionated,they readily accept that they know only a little.They donot plan and read.They graze the books randomly and meander through all the subjects.Their pleasure is emotional.
Years of formal education has made me in to a reader of the first type.I am trying my best to unlearn.
The libraries can be broadly classified in to two.(1)The libraries at academic institutions and meant for researchers and scholars have a totally different personality from those (2)frequented by the general readers.The first types are dry and haughty.They exude knowledge and the consequent arrogance. But the other type not infected by the professional intellectuals is full of wisdom.It is motherly and engages the reader unconditionally.The readers of the first believe they know a lot and visit the library only to substantiate and to find support for what is known to them.They have a defined purpose and they confine themselves only to the books and fail to feel the library as an entity in itself.whatever pleasure they have in reading is incidental and purely intellectual.The second type of library has readers who wander in without any agenda.They simply love to read They know all about the librarian and staff.They feel humbled by the wisdom stored in the books.Although passionately opinionated,they readily accept that they know only a little.They donot plan and read.They graze the books randomly and meander through all the subjects.Their pleasure is emotional.
Years of formal education has made me in to a reader of the first type.I am trying my best to unlearn.
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