The next time you’re browsing between bookshelves in the library, consider this. In 1968, at Northwestern University, an empty section of wood shelving fell against other shelves that were full of books in a domino effect that dumped 264,000 books, ruining more than 8,000 of them. The avalanche shattered solid oak chairs and flattened metal footstools. No one was injured. However, deaths have been reported in similar catastrophes. Earthquakes can be especially destructive to libraries. The information for this account came from a Longmont Library book appropriately called The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders (027.009KEL). The author is Stuart Kells, a book historian. When looking for this and other reading material, you may wish to leave your bike helmet on.
You may not recognize the name, Todd H. Bol (1956—2018), but you’ve no doubt heard about what he did. This was the remarkable man who, to honor his late mother, erected a wooden doll house stocked with books in his yard for his neighbors and strangers to use as a library—the Little Free Library. The idea was simple—take books, donate books—and it caught on fast. Currently there are more than 75,000 Little Free Libraries around the world, and probably more that the organization he founded doesn’t know about. Longmont has at least one—you can locate it on the map at littlefreelibrary.org. Also on that website is information about how to set up your own book-sharing station. P.S. The Longmont Library has three of our own Little Free Libraries in our community — located at Affolter Park, Rothrock Dell Park and Kanemoto Park. Check ’em out!
How time gallops by. Award-winning writer for children and teens Beverly Cleary is now 102, going on 103. Her advice to readers is, “If you don’t see the book you want on the shelf, write it yourself.” If you do aspire to write, keep in mind what Gilbert K. Chesterton said: “A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” And Mark Twain observed, “A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.” Obviously that didn’t apply to War and Peace.
