Libraries

When I was younger, I used to frequent the community libraries weekly. I would first pick 4 books to borrow and bring home to read (4 was the limit then, now it's 8?) and then spend the rest of my time there picking random titles which I found interesting and settle down on one of the benches, or if there wasn't any space the floor, to pore over. Often time flew by but when my mother was taking longer than usual to do her shopping I would reach over shamelessly to the baby books' section and have fun lifting-the-flaps or skimming over the colourful (sometimes textured) illustrations.

The library to date has been refurbished and the old layout is gone. Gone is the reading room which was occasionally opened; it had a couple of beanbags for children to lounge in. Gone is the 'corridor' which I had always passed by, and which contained the Young Adults section. I recall the inferiority complex I had felt each time walking past that area and not feeling good enough to browse books there. Sometimes there were mild sexual themes in the Junior section, and I was afraid that those would become full-blown when I read from the Young Adults.

I used to need to bend down to look at books on the shelf in the Junior section because I was tall for my age. Now there is no need. Now I am quite the average size, or even smaller, and some shelves are too high for me to reach. Those books shall never be available to me unless I have a taller friend who is browsing the same shelves nearby.

You could say I had quite the solitary childhood. At gatherings, I never could fit in with the other children. I was quiet, but I read. When my classmates were hanging outside, I was at home reading. My first companions were princes and princesses, fairies, travelers, mermaids, dragons and the like. I took books out with me on family dinners, relative visits, et cetra. Come to think of how little I read stories nowadays as I get lost in academics and find myself exploring real-world events instead. I miss reading.