Books

I love books. There's something beautiful about them. I've been working in the library for about a week now. Actually working at the library at the circulation desk, not just studying. I've been cataloging books, re-shelving books, checking people in and out of the system, organizing newspapers and periodicals.

I didn't want to work in the library initially. But now, I'm so glad I did. There are so many different resources I didn't even know we had. I was going through the newspapers today; its the first of the month; and got caught up reading them. I just sat there on the floor of the library for atleast an hour (I was supposed to be working, mind you) reading China Daily, Moscow Weekly (both in English of course), and the New York Times.

Do you know how long its been since I've read a newspaper? Probably over a month. That's not normal for me. I read the paper every morning. We get it at home in Georgia and they give out free copies in the dorm lobby. I've missed being informed about current things happening in the world. Granted, I read the online Atlanta Journal Constitution, I read at msnbc.com pretty regularly, and when I have time, BBC Online. Along with the ten or so anthropology and science online news sources I subscribe to. But, there's nothing like reading an actual newspaper.

We live in the world of Kindles, Macbooks, iPods, and cellphones. Pretty soon, most things will be completely computerized. I hope hope hope hope hope hope HOPE that libraries and print news sources aren't eliminated because of this technological era we live in. Sure you can read books online. I've done it plenty of times. My Calculus text book is an online copy (I don't recommend doing this, by the way). But there's something very satisfying of having a "hard copy" of something.