Why you can't find what you want at the library: PART 2

For those who have already read this post, please note:
THERE WAS A SLIGHT MISTAKE.
As I said, returned and loaned books DO remain in the BRANCH they end up in;
However, books belonging to the MAIN library on 42nd St. ALWAYS GO BACK.

AS I WAS SAYING in PART 1
(above: Aug 11, 2010):

awe of a child

It's exciting to walk into a library, it gives me that thrill I felt as a child discovering reading. As a child I didn't know what was good, what was bad. I was on my own. It was always a risk, an adventure. That's the thrill I get at the Battery Park branch.

If I go to the main library branch downtown, I am confronted with walls upon walls of books, that's a good thing. But I have never heard of most of them, I am lost in the wilderness. 

LOST: Shira Golding flickr link "Harry Potter Library"

In the neat little Battery Park branch, I’m only confronted with a few walls. But I know that almost every book I pull out is going to be a good one. Things seem almost hand-picked for me already. My job is easy.

I can dash in there running half an hour late and know that in five minutes I will find two spectacular books that I have never heard of. On the phone to my friend who has been waiting that half hour: “I’m in the library. I’ll be there in ten minutes!”

the fabulous Joan and Jackie, 1950s
Rex Features link

FINDING JACKIE

literary discoveries

"greenest library in new york" 

 article link

THE PIANO TUNER

I have made a terrific literary discovery just browsing the library. The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason.

I've read that Werner Herzog is making a movie of it. It is an eccentric book in which the geography, the atmosphere, is essential to the meaning. Like Thomas Hardy who reveals his characters through his landscapes. Werner Herzog is just the guy to do that!

ASK YOUR NEIGHBOR

Another way to make literary discoveries: just ask your friends from other countries what they consider classics. Two books that my friend from South Africa read as part of her school curriculum, yet we in USA have never heard of: The Power of One by Bryce Courtney. And the young adult book Jennie by Paul Gallico.

Not all neighborhood libraries are full of junk. I have just discovered a new neighborhood library that has obviously hand-picked their literature section. Hooray for the opening of the Battery Park branch on North End Avenue in Tribeca.