I've just returned from a few of my hangouts where I visit often: the public libraries and Barnes and Noble. I crave a steady diet of brain food and find it in those places. I don't know much about anything, but I sure enjoy learning a little about a lot of things. It works for me.
My initial goal when I set out this morning was to return borrowed books to the Bismarck library, but I came out with books I never could have dreamt would catch my eye. On the New Book shelves Gail Godwin: The Making of a Writer / Journals 1961-1963 begged me to open its cover and read. Yes, it appeared interesting so I carried it off and descended the long stairway to the fiction section. I found a number of novels she has authored and selected her novella Evenings at Five. Gail Godwin?
I walked past the magazine section and noticed Jack Nicholson leering out at me from the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. No, I don't think so, not today, I've got to get to Barnes and Noble for a Starbuck's. In there, the New Biography shelves offer something of interest, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquardt. She writes about North Dakota and how as a young girl she couldn't wait to get out of here and find some appropriate action. It is one I will pick up again. It seems like these emigrants always yearn to come back home.
The need arises to hurry and jump into my old beater S-10 pickup and head to the Mandan library. This library is a visual treat to visit because the large reading room is furnished with beautifully conditioned Arts and Crafts furniture. Their collection holds a Larry McMurtry book Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen in which there is a quotation I remember from reading a few years back that I want to lift and use in the future. We're going to Texas in January, and I find a travel guide that I think will give useful information. Walking to the circulation desk I passed the music and movie DVD collection and picked up Three Dog Night Live with the Tennessee Symphony Orchestra.
I had found enough items to satisfy my eclectic reading tastes for a day or so. I asked the librarian if the Chinese restaurant located above the library serves good food. She assured me it did, but with singleness of purpose I needed to get home to begin reading today's harvest.
