Libraries are sacred institutions, but they are also hated institutions.
Hordes of ravagers have more than decimated vast libraries of unknowable knowledge. Thoughts in bound form fall regularly to fell fiends, book burners, surf Nazis and the ignorami of all eras.
It seems that Gaia has already survived five extinction events. Here’s a thought for a cloudy day — the same sun did shine over each: before, during and after the curtain fell. Same old Sol. How many of those five included library detonations? My steampunk time machine isn’t good enough to slip a nanosecond into the past; however, if I ever succeed in traveling back though each extinction event, I already have a book title in mind:
The Seven Wonders of Five Ancient Extinct Worlds by Bill Ziegler the 1947th.
I’ve recently mentioned the untimely demise of a local library jewel in 1955. My home town is well known for such epic fails. Would that eye rolls might forestall them.
An esteemed librarian recently shared a magnificent find among recently orphaned books — a volume maistly Scotch (language). Check it out here, or at your local library.
Lisa and I lovingly offer resting shelves for orphaned books dropped at the library door. Devoted friends o’ the local library open their basement walls this Thursday at 9:00 A.M. Set your alarms.
Here’s a thought I’ve for you brought — marvelous books inherited are unexpected and sudden fun: intensely beautiful gilded Danish language volumes (50 cents each), Edwardian Era novels, Bobbsey-Twin originals, Girls of Central High, and the apocryphal So You Like Vacuum Tubes?
Lisa is currently reading this 50-center: First Port of Call by Elizabeth Jordan.
A cult classic with crisply flowing pages like Rock of Three Planets.
We once found two crisp twenty-dollar notes in one book we purchased, each used as bookmarks. Interestingly enough the boxes of books bought that day: $44 for a couple hundred books.
So, how large is our library of misfit books? A few thousand and in every room. A thousand donated back to the orphanage.
About six years ago I catalogued 1500 of our books online; however, exigencies and other stuff — like time — placed it on the backest burner. It’s on LibraryThing 🙂
Thanks for reading.
billziegler1947 
“. . . the apocryphal So You Like Vacuum Tubes?” — Great stuff, Bill, great stuff. I assume it’s not a reference to what the nurse asked some fella on the emergency ward?
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Very very incisive comment, Hariod. I’ve seen long lists of emergency room logs that reveal the variety of items found this way. Never underestimate sphincteral strength and its similarity to *vacuum* it seems— thar’s the lesson 🙂
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How marvellous! Your list of books that is on top of the post. I see we are very much floating the the same dinghy Bill when it comes to a love of ye olde orphaned tomes! Great collection, I’ve been occasionally adding some of my own to the Cloud, I’ll never be able to list them all, but knowing they have a good home is enough for me generally. Thank you for the link again good sir and say hello to the lovely Lisa from Esme too.
– Esme smiling and waving upon the Cloud
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I just read your most kind remarks to Lisa — she wafts tome scents cloudward 🙂
The LibraryThink link is very much a snapshot from past residents at this orphanage. Many have long since been adopted by new book-loving parents, many are new arrivals. Of such be the dynamics of life in a library — tiny tomes and largish tomes requiring care, old friends well met, new friends well met… What awaits at tomorrow’s DISCARD sale? You’ll read about it right here. Stay tuned for the latest from Gretel (Lisa) and Mumbletunes (Bill) 🙂 🙂
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I love Libraries, too!
Imagine my dismay when the local High School gave away most of its collection, tore out most of the bookshelves, and replaced them with computers. And that’s progress? 😦
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Hi Carmen, Thanks for the kind comment. 🙂
The school board likely took pride in being forward-thinkers as well. Many tomes in our collection are from near and distant libraries, stamped “DISCARD” We also find wonderful marginalia, newspaper clippings, hand-written notes, post cards — it’s a humbling experience to touch a distant moment from an earlier century 🙂
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Have a look at this Bill!!!
https://alk3r.wordpress.com/2017/05/13/xylotheque-the-wood-library/
I think Esme is in love.
– Esme wild about the wood (so to speak) upon the Cloud
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Such a lovely find, this. I am imagining images of a cottage industry in an 18th Century Tyrol, while we’re at it; a winding way to aethereal clouds, while we’re still at it; craft and art woven to balance hut to tree to book to library to home to library to book to tree to hut, while we’re still at it. 🙂
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Interesting post. I love to find people so passionate about books. I have soooo many I am running out of space!! So lovely you save all these tomes and keep them safe. I hate to think of books being abandoned!! It makes me sad. They are like living things to me.
Libraries were always a refuge for me, somewhere I would go to get away from something and just lose myself in the quiet world of books.
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Books are doors to unique universes. Libraries, no matter their size, are like grand terminals or waystations for traveling to new places, old or familiar. Visiting friendly bookshelves is always enjoyable, always intriguing, rewarding and, indeed, spaces for wondrous refuge 🙂
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