Today I woke up very excited at the thought of going to the public library in the city centre. It is the biggest of the libraries in Bloemfontein so I could just imagine the choice of books I would have at my disposal.
I put on my prettiest maxi dress ( the one that says picnic under a huge tree reading a good book). With Khaya in tow we set off on our literary adventure.Such an anti-climax, I've been planning this trip all week and what do I get? A dirty, dingy, "sparsely booked" arena.
The shelves were empty, the ones that had books had books that were in such a bad condition. How can we, us, government, whoever let this be? I went with the intention of borrowing the Sophie Kinsella Shopaholic series, and was told by the librarian "that Author is not in our system".I settled for walking aisle for aisle and grabbing any book that "calls me". I had imagined sitting on the floor, legs crossed, a number of books spread before me to pick and choose from, but between the dirty floors and less than inspiring book collection that was impossible.
There are so many initiatives, food drives, blanket drives,toy drives, surely we need a book drive to support our local libraries.
There is only so much of Tan-orexic, style disabled, New Jersey natives that a person can take. If I can't read what shall I do?
