Library = Church

For writers, walking into a library is like walking into church. The stuff inside the building is sacred, and the stuff one carries out is all about wisdom and guidance and thought provocation and a connection to something more important than our prosaic lives.

I've given talks at several dozen libraries in Northern California and Northern Nevada. I gave two more this last week, Colusa, CA and Lincoln, CA. Those libraries reinforced once again the simple fact that a library is the cultural center of its community. And the people who frequent libraries are remarkable, highly educated, and intensely interested in the larger world of ideas. Just to have a dozen or a hundred people turn off the TV and go to their local library for an event speaks volumes about their priorities. (And, of course, when people come to hear an author speak it is hugely gratifying to that author!)

If you haven't visited your local library in awhile, plan to go soon. You may be surprised. Even in a world where you can get lots of information from Google, your library offers uncountable resources.

My hat is off to libraries. A writer's church.