Don Wooten: Take the time to read - what you draw from a book stays with you
Earlier this month, I used this space to chronicle my introduction and subsequent commitment to classical music. My excuse for this indulgence was that September is Classical Music Month.
Like all other months in the year, September is dedicated to a wide variety of subjects: 118 in all. In the long list of topics competing for attention, situated between idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and leukemia awareness, you'll find another subject as worthy of notice as classical music: this is also library card sign-up month.
I don't remember just when I first got my public library card but feel sure it was on the first day I was permitted to do so. Prior to that time, I had to content myself with rummaging through the St. Thomas Grade School library which had some reference works and a complete collection of Tom Swift books, but not much else. It was no competition for the hundreds of volumes in the local public library.
The library branch closest to my home was on McLemore Street. It wasn't a very imposing building: just a long rectangular room with bookshelves lining three walls. As a matter of fact, it looked a lot like Rock Island's old Arrow Club, minus the bar and booths and with better lighting.
The McLemore branch was at the far end of our neighborhood. At least, it seemed that way to me. It was a good hike from our home and my legs were much shorter in those days.
However, I made the trek every week and always took out the maximum number of books allowed: four. These days they let you take out more than that, if you wish, but I always feel guilty doing it.
It took about four days to read a week's allotment but, unless desperate for more information on a particular subject, I waited the full seven days before making another trip.
It may not have been an imposing building, but in that somewhat musty room lay the answers to my questions and a means of discovering things I never knew existed. My interest in herpetology dates from finding books there by Raymond L. Ditmars; I explored the exotic world of opera, learned that stars were more than points of light, and chanced upon subjects which have held my interest into old age.
Then, one glorious day, I learned that my card was good, not only at the McLemore Branch, but at the main library in downtown Memphis. So, one fateful Saturday, with my card in my pocket, I hopped the Number 11 bus, got off on Main, and walked down to Front Street.
There it stood at the edge of the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River: The Memphis Main Library, a building which seemed to combine the noblest elements of castle, mansion and prison. I had arrived at the Temple of Knowledge and held the key in my hand.
My elation gave way to disappointment when they told me to stay out of the adult section. I obeyed the rules for about a year but, being tall for my age, soon began to walk unchallenged into the place where the real books were kept. Like a master spy, I had penetrated the citadel, and all its secrets lay open before me.
My next exciting discovery was that you didn't have to ask for books from the card catalogue; you could walk right back into the stacks and look for them yourself! To this day I can summon up those stacks, with dull light shining through the opaque, wire-reinforced, glass floors; book carts shuffling back and forth; and librarians murmuring in soft tones.
Moving from the McLemore Branch to the Main Library, was akin to advancing from high school to college. I could read anything that provoked my curiosity - even though it meant occasionally enduring the questioning looks of librarians who weren't sure I was old enough to cope with certain subjects, but who were too polite to say so.
And it cost me nothing! It was free! All that was needed was a library card and that was free, too. True, it did take some spare change in my parents' taxes, but it was a pittance to pay for admission to all of human learning.
Our public libraries richly deserve a month's celebration along with classical music. And it's not a bad idea to lump them in the same period. Books and concerts; words and music - not a bad combination.
So, remember to celebrate one of September's worthier observations by getting and using a library card. But don't wait too long ... tomorrow is the last day of Library Card Sign-up Month.
Take the opportunity to expand your mind's horizons. Explore something you've always wondered about. Quit leaning on the internet and take the time to read; what you draw from a book will stay with you. But please, don't take out more than four at one time. That seems an adequate number. After all, you'll also want to use your card to check out some classical records this month.
Don Wooten is a former Illinois state senator and a regular columnist. Email him at: .
