The Library
I love the library. I love the idea of the library. Most of the books I read come from the library. I used to buy a lot of books, but I ended up giving most of them away or getting practically nothing for them at the used book store (I also love the used book store). There's a new library being built here in Santa Monica, and it'll be finished soon. The old library was a pretty amazing place, and the new one is supposed to be huge and even more wonderful. The Downtown Central Library in Los Angeles is seven stories tall (I think) and is the Taj Majal of public libraries. I keep saying I'm going to visit it some day, but downtown LA isn' t my favorite place, so I haven't gone yet.
In my experience, libraries often attract some strange people. I guess a free place to sit all day and read and use the bathrooms is a pretty attractive thing to some of the denizens of the city. Nevertheless, to me that's part of the library's charm.
From time to time, I've been a student of the Kennedy assassination, and I've read most of the standard books on the subject from the library. I have a good friend who's a pretty serious student of the JFK assassination, and he buys all the books. He likes to call me up, depending on if he's bought a new JFK assasination book recently, to discuss assassination theories, and every so often I'll include a JFK assasination book when I check books out of the library just to refresh my memory and keep up with him. Apparently, there will always be another JFK assassination book, and my buddy will probably buy it and want to discuss it with me.
One of my favorite authors is a guy who writes under the pseudonym of KC Constantine. He's written a series of police procedurals which are actually character studies and subtle social commentaries, and I look forward every time there's a new one out. When a new Constantine book is in the stores, it'll soon be at the library. He writes the best dialogue I've ever read, and his characters talk like real people talk and have problems that real people have. Anyway, in the KC Constantine book called Bottom Liner Blues, one of the characters is a mean old Russian immigrant author whom I suspect is a stand-in for Constantine himself. This character has an interesting position on libraries. He believes that libraries flagrantly violate the U.S. Constitution and should be banned. Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 8 of the Constitution states "The Congress shall have the power to....promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." The fifth amendment states "No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." His reasoning is that libraries are tax-supported institutions that make his copyrighted material available to the public for free, thus taking his property for public use without just compensation. I suspect that Constantine had one too many people tell him that they're devoted fans and have read all of his books, and that they get them from the library (like me). I never thought of it that way, and I suppose he has a point. I've bought four or five of Constantine's books over the years, but I have to confess that I get the majority of them from the library. But if I had to buy them, I probably wouldn't read them.
So to both of my readers, I highly recommend the library. Free books are your friends.
Oh yeah. Oswald didn't shoot anybody that day, Oswald was definitely a CIA operative, there's been a massive ongoing coverup involving the Secret Service and others, there were at least five shots fired at the president including at least two head shots, the autopsy was a sham, the autopsy photos and x-rays are faked, and the Zapruder film was tampered with and edited.
In my experience, libraries often attract some strange people. I guess a free place to sit all day and read and use the bathrooms is a pretty attractive thing to some of the denizens of the city. Nevertheless, to me that's part of the library's charm.
From time to time, I've been a student of the Kennedy assassination, and I've read most of the standard books on the subject from the library. I have a good friend who's a pretty serious student of the JFK assassination, and he buys all the books. He likes to call me up, depending on if he's bought a new JFK assasination book recently, to discuss assassination theories, and every so often I'll include a JFK assasination book when I check books out of the library just to refresh my memory and keep up with him. Apparently, there will always be another JFK assassination book, and my buddy will probably buy it and want to discuss it with me.
One of my favorite authors is a guy who writes under the pseudonym of KC Constantine. He's written a series of police procedurals which are actually character studies and subtle social commentaries, and I look forward every time there's a new one out. When a new Constantine book is in the stores, it'll soon be at the library. He writes the best dialogue I've ever read, and his characters talk like real people talk and have problems that real people have. Anyway, in the KC Constantine book called Bottom Liner Blues, one of the characters is a mean old Russian immigrant author whom I suspect is a stand-in for Constantine himself. This character has an interesting position on libraries. He believes that libraries flagrantly violate the U.S. Constitution and should be banned. Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 8 of the Constitution states "The Congress shall have the power to....promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." The fifth amendment states "No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." His reasoning is that libraries are tax-supported institutions that make his copyrighted material available to the public for free, thus taking his property for public use without just compensation. I suspect that Constantine had one too many people tell him that they're devoted fans and have read all of his books, and that they get them from the library (like me). I never thought of it that way, and I suppose he has a point. I've bought four or five of Constantine's books over the years, but I have to confess that I get the majority of them from the library. But if I had to buy them, I probably wouldn't read them.
So to both of my readers, I highly recommend the library. Free books are your friends.
Oh yeah. Oswald didn't shoot anybody that day, Oswald was definitely a CIA operative, there's been a massive ongoing coverup involving the Secret Service and others, there were at least five shots fired at the president including at least two head shots, the autopsy was a sham, the autopsy photos and x-rays are faked, and the Zapruder film was tampered with and edited.
posted by Shnookylangston at 5:13 PM
1 Comments:
Expose the truth! All was not as it seemed in Dallas on 11/22/1963!
I need to find out where the Morristown library is. I was at the bookstore about to buy a book, and I thought, "Wait a minute, what am I doing?" I've gotten to the point where there are certain books I'll buy sight unseen (most especially by certain authors), but the prices have risen so high that it's just not worth it anymore.
And I'm sure that my not buying books isn't doing anything to help drive prices down.
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