Wednesday, February 23, 2022

In Praise of Libraries


 

The Buried Book is a thrilling intellectual adventure: a brilliant study of Gilgamesh, it isalso a rich and complex narrative of colonialist adventurers, obsessed scholars, anxious theologians, and contemporary writers all caught up in the ancient epic’s amazingly wide net” 

                                                  (Stephen Greenblatt).






A friend recently recommended a book that I thought I would love to read, The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh.  I went online to find out more about it. It seemed quite fascinating and I decided to look for it. At Amazom.com, even a used copy was $25. I could get it on Kindle for $11, but I really did not want to do an e-book. I wanted to hold it in my hand and thumb through the pages. A used copy at Thrift books was $6.50, but then there was the shipping cost

At that point, I was struck by a most novel idea – perhaps the library has a copy! I checked online, and, sure enough, there were copies at more than one branch. With a simple click of the mouse, I reserved the book and they will ship it to the library nearest my home. All at no cost to me.

If you have a book you would like to read, a movie you would like to see, or even a music CD you would like to hear, look first at your local library. In addition, your local library will offer a number of other services such as classes, free lectures, special events, and online services. Check out the Birmingham Public Library website to see some of the things they have to offer at http://www.bplonline.org/



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