Northwest Library

After taking in the movie “Widows” this morning (way less formulaic than I expected with several major surprises), I decided to skip lunch since I ate far too well yesterday.  The original City Barbecue location on Henderson Road was doing a fundraiser—giving 25% of receipts to the Neighborhood Services Inc. food pantry. So I ended up eating both lunch and dinner there (as well as seeing many good friend from Indiana Presbyterian Church). I left the theater just after noon and headed to the Northwest Library on Hard road—a Worthington Public Library that is also one of the 17 libraries that partner with the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.

This is one of the three or four libraries I’ve been to in the past, mostly many years ago with my children.  The curved wall of windows along the roof line is quite striking.  But apparently there are some roof problems being addressed. Plastic sheeting is hanging from the ceiling throughout much of the library, and the sound level from the work is such that the library is offering noise cancelling headphones.

The plastic sheeting doesn’t detract from the friendly entrances to the children’s sections of the library.  The large carpeted room looks like an especially inviting space for story time.

This was the busiest of the three libraries I’ve visited so far on a weekday afternoon, with many of the people using computers in a large central area. The well-lighted stacks seemed to be calling to me, and I spent a while searching for various of my wish-list books.

I spent an hour or so reading in a (relatively) quiet, well-lighted area at the north end of the library. Unfortunately there was no fire burning in the fireplace. I read Ted Chiang’s “Story of My Life” from one of the books I checked out last week. It’s the basis for one of my favorite sci-fi movies, “Arrival,” and I was fascinated by the changes and additions that were made to allow this fairly cerebral story to retain its power when translated to the screen. I loved the story as much as I loved the film.

Today I returned the first book I checked out two weeks ago and checked out the next book after it in John Sandford’s “Virgil Flowers” series. I also was pleased to come across a book not on my Amazon wish list, the latest thriller by a favorite author, Thomas Perry.