The Bexley Public Library

After a wonderful lunch with a good friend at the Market District restaurant in Bexley, I decided to go up the street a couple of blocks and visit the Bexley Public Library as the second stop in my plan to visit all of the public libraries in the metropolitan Columbus area in my first year of retirement.

The library is on Main Street near the center of Bexley in a lovely stone building that dates to 1929. It’s next door to the Congregation Torat Emet Orthodox Synagogue, and the Capital University football stadium is right behind it.  As I walked toward the entrance, the first thing I noticed is how friendly they are to bicyclists.

Then it was up the stairs and through an impressively heavy brass and glass door to enter into the traditional hush of a library — with stacks and stacks of books straight ahead and to the right and a large room to the left filled with all kinds of other media as well as a second floor study area.

 

My favorite room in the library was the Quiet Reading Room, with tables, overstuffed chairs, and shelves of large print books along all the walls. I spend a most enjoyable hour and a half there reading while surrounded by books.

As I got ready to leave, I was pleased to discover that my brand new (just renewed last week) Columbus Public Libraries card would allow me to check out books from the Bexley Public Library, especially since I had spent some time browsing the stacks to find the two books below that are on my Amazon Wish List.  (Ted Chaing’s “The Story of Your Life” is the basis for “Arrival,” one of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies.)

A bonus to go with this library visit — across the street from the library I found Gramercy Books. It’s just a couple of years old, and I’d never been in it. So I spent another hour there, browsing and adding to my wish list.  (No purchases, however.)  It was a truly fine afternoon!