Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
I cant remember how old I was when my father took me to get a library card,
but I remember how my whole body felt charged with excitement. My fingers tingled
as I picked out the huge stack of books to take home with me that day. My library card
came with a sense of freedom, of adventure, not unlike that which many young
people feel when getting a drivers license. With the card, as with a car, I could go
anywhere, do anything.
I had long been a lover of books, a voracious, ravenous reader, but I had also
grown up with parents who were forever on the strictest of budgets. Buying books
was out of the question, but no one ever turned down a trip to the library. To see my
name on the card, to not have to ask my parents to get a book for me, it was, perhaps,
the first time in my life I felt in full control.
The librarian went over the rules of library card ownership with me. She looked
at my large stack of books and said, Now remember, if you cant finish these in two
weeks, you have to come back and re-check them. My first thought was, Who would
need two weeks to read a book? Im older now. The speed at which I read has
slowed, but my love for libraries has marched steadily on.
Long Live the Libraries,
Yaa Gyasi