Friday, April 20, 2007

A library card - a good thing

After living in Los Angeles for eight years I finally got a library card. At Paula's dinner party, my friend Nichelle told me there was a branch a few blocks away from my apartment. There are so many books I want to read. Some books I want to own but others I can check out at the library.

I have spent many happy moments in libraries. I found my Verona Public Library card, issused in 1977. Back then parents had no fears regarding letting kids walk all over town (Verona is tiny, 2 miles by 2 miles) by themselves. I would go and spend hours reading books, reading magazines, VOGUE, SEVENTEEN, ARCHITECTUAL DIGEST, and NEW YORK MAGAZINE were my favorites. I don't think they had RIGHT ON OR ESSENCE. I would have to go to the Montclair library for those. ha.

The library was in the town center, near the H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, the Municipal Building, the police station (we had maybe 4 or 5 officers and everyone knew their names) and the fire station. The librarians were very nice. A perfect day was the library, then stopping by Anna Capri for a slice, or the Lakeside deli for a hoagie (called a sub in some non-Jersey places), and a little Drakes apple pie. I am annoyed I cannot get Drakes out here. I am not feeling the Hostess pies at all.

When we lived in New York City, my dad would take us to the local library branch. My mom, a nurse, worked every other weekend and he wanted to get us out of the apartment (unless the Mets were playing). On the Saturdays she worked, we would hit the library, then the park. I would go through books so quickly, it drove my dad nuts. I couldn't wait to go every two weeks, so sometimes all of us would go.

Two years ago I started to read for leisure again. The flow of screenplays and books to read for work never ends. However, I missed picking up a book just to enjoy it and not looking at it as a "piece of business." I could read scripts/books for work 24/7 and still not catch up so I try to read at least one or two books a month that are not work related. I believe being a well-rounded film exec actually make me better at my job, esp. when working with writers. Of course it helps that I work for a talent (actor/producer) driven company. If I worked elsewhere I might not be able to read, sleep or doing anything that wasn't connected to the biz.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

T.K. in Ohio here: now you've really touched on something: the almighty library! (LOL!) The library has been my 2nd home since I was a child & my mother used to take the whole group of us. I'm glad she did that because still today, the library is where I go when I get stressed or feel down; something about being around all those books! I literally spend hours there on Saturdays when i'm not busy. I call it my "librarytherapy". Not only do I get a couple of books @ a time (I too, try to read at least 2 a month), I also am seriously addicted to the magazines (Gourmet, Bonapetit, etc.) Right now I'm reading "nineteen minutes" by Jodi Picoult which is extremely erie because it's about a high school shooting in a small New Hampshire town; about a week into reading it, sadly the Virginia Tech thing jumped off, so that gave me chills! Sorry to ramble on - you got my attention when you said the "L" word (library - LOL!)

erin said...

you are so right...I just "re"-discovered the joys of this little plastic wonder about 2 months ago :)

Anonymous said...

I love reading-but the library has me has old old stuff and I'm just too lazy to drive 4 miles (and pay for parking) to go to the bigger,better library.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Hey T.K. - I don't why I didn't join the library years ago. I heard good things about "nineteen minutes" .

chris & erin - I know it's awesome. I walked into the branch and thought "look at all these books!". haha

j. doe - I get it. I think the bev. Hills branch has newer books but the branch closest to me is in walking distance. Something very rare in L.A.

Anonymous said...

My lazy weekends are spent either in the library or the local bookstore. I love being surrounded by books.
I also can thank my dad for my love of libraries.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

rose - lazy weekends, another good thing!

Cherrye said...

Ohhhh you are so lucky. I wish I had a library near me - with books I could understand! :-)

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

cherrye - A friend gave me "Il Diario di Bridget Jones". I read the English version but still can't follow the Italian version. I am going to stick with children's books for now.