Books, books, and more books

I sort of already described to you how big of a nerd I am when I told you about all the books that I bought in San Francisco. What I forgot to tell you was how fascinated I am with libraries. So much so that I even visit them when I am on vacation. How sad.

Examples: When Elaine and I went to Australia last January, we were walking around Melbourne one day just sight-seeing, and I made us visit the State Library of Victoria, which we were just walking by. Even took photos! Here's me sitting on the lawn in front of the state library. I still don't know how Elaine and I survived those two weeks together alone in Australia. She dragged me to things like the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail) and I dragged her on a winery tour and to the library. Boy do we have different ideas of "fun."



Another example: Visited the State Library in Hawaii. Yup. But this time it wasn't just me who wanted to go. Michael also wanted to go, so that he could photocopy music scores for playing on his oh-so-in-tune piano at home. We copied "The Piano Man" by Bruce Springsteen and a couple Disney classics, "A Whole New World" and "Beauty and The Beast."

Final example: Still after visiting all those bookstores in San Francisco and the Bay Area, on my last day in California, I suggested that we go to the Foster City Public Library just for fun. Yup, just for fun. Michael and I ended up browsing the used book room for a good hour or so and ended up picking out five books to buy. For $3.50 how can you go wrong? Snagged some pretty good titles, too, like Stiff by Mary Roach, My Antonia by Willa Cather, Cebu by Peter Bacho, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee.

Still today, I went to my home library in Willowbrook, Indian Prairie Public Library to borrow CDs and I ended up buying a used copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond for 50 cents. I think I'll end up opening a used book store someday.