A few months ago, I had a few consecutive days off for recreational purposes. I chose the library. A friend of mine responded, “Ugh, you can go anywhere on your time off. Why would you go to the library?” I said, “Because it’s fun!”
I guess most people don’t have as many questions as I do. If you do have as many questions as I do, then you are probably in college or working in some sort of academic research field. Unfortunately for me, graduate studies or an academic research position is out of reach for me. All I have is the public library.
At my local public library, I am limited by its circulating collection to find the information I am looking for. My public library does not contain the college-level textbooks, extensive primary resources, and current scholarly journals that I am looking for. Even if I do find something that might contain what I am looking for, it may be listed as reference material and I cannot take it out of the library and borrow it for a few weeks.
The public library is a limited resource, but I am trying to make do with what I can borrow. I have lots of questions, but not all of them will be answered at my local public library.
As I complete reading books, I will post my book reviews online. This blog is not meant to be a review source for the newest books. My blog is just dedicated to the books I have decided to read for one reason or another. You are welcome to borrow the same titles from your local library, read them, and make comments to my posts. Or, you can comment if you have already read a particular title I have reviewed.
I am currently working on some non-fiction books which takes time. However, I read to small children and those children’s book reviews will be posted more often.
I am not really a fan of fiction, but you are welcome to post to my blog to recommend a good one.
If I read a novel or other fictional literature for an adult audience, I am looking for evidence of ideas, beliefs, and philosophies of an individual, a group of people, or a country of a historic or recent period of time. For example, some college history professors will assign culturally important novels or fictional literature to their students to demonstrate historic ideas, beliefs, or philosophies for a given period in time. If you’ve studied World History, you may have read the Bhagavad Gita. If you’ve studied Western Civilization, you may have read the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The Bhagavad Gita and the Epic of Gilgamesh are culturally and historically significant; yet, one can argue that for just about any book. I don’t want to rely solely on bestseller’s lists for insights into a group’s philosophy. Getting on a bestseller’s list might mean that the publisher had a really great marketing strategy and a large budget to pay for it. What about the authors from small publishing companies? They might never get on a bestseller’s list due to a minuscule marketing budget? Should we just discount them and not read their books?
Authors from small publishing companies may express minority perspectives. In studying history, we automatically study the ideas of majority groups, but we have to work harder to find minority perspectives, because the ideas are automatically excluded in the media, in politics, in social commentaries, in education, in social sciences, and in history.
When I look for books, I am looking to learn and I cannot just read the most popularly selling books; I have to read books very few people knows about as well. There could be some valuable nuggets hiding in those lesser known books that can be referenced in academic research papers.
So, you see? Going to the library on a mission to answer one’s questions can be fun like solving a mystery or putting the pieces of a puzzle together. It can be like a treasure hunt for answers to one’s questions. If you are not a curious person already, I hope that by reading my blog that you will become curious, ask the questions that are important to you, conduct your own research at your local public library, and find answers to your own questions.
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