The first book I took out was the Wizard of Oz.

I never go anywhere without checking out all the local libraries. And yes, I’m a librarian.

The columbus llibrary re-entered my life when my mother lay near death in a hospital across the street. It provided me with respite and restored my soul.

Miriam

That said, I really don’t spend much time in libraries around here these days. The King County Library system is very much an extension of the liberal establishment, constantly putting levies on the ballot for one frivolous thing or another (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school or library levy not pass with at least 65% of the vote,) emphasizing multiculturalism to the point that some branches have larger foreign language collections than English, and in one case using library funds for the defense of someone suspected of using their facilities to distribute child pornography, as if it was a right of theirs to do so.

Here in Princeton the local public library building (a “modern style landmark”) was torn down and rebuilt at huge expense, and now the interior vaguely reminds you of Borders Bookstore. Services remain equally mediocre. If you want a good local library, you must pay $400/yr for membership at PU (unless you work/study at PU).

I am within subway distance of all the branches of the NYC library system, though. I would live in an agony of suspense if I had to rely on interlibrary loan- as I have had to in the past, researching other things, in less populated areas.

So I’m all for making the world’s libraries available online (tho I wonder how writers will make a living in that world). But until I can get the same stuff online that I can get in print, I will continue to rely on the magnificent library at Grand Army Plaza, just a hop, skip, and jump up the 2 and the 3 (so that’s why I pay the exorbitant rents here- I knew there was a reason), and on the main branch at fifth ave.

I too was first impressed by the novelty of the Downtown Seattle Public Library but I felt a lingering coldness to it. It is too steely and glassy and the grayness of the interior was not inspiring to me or other friends of mine who deal with Seattle grayness all of the time. It just wasn’t fireplace homey and inviting. There are many bookstores that are better designed for book and research lovers. Too bad the term ‘modern’ now means some version of weird or unsettling.

I’ve spent more time looking at the pictures of Corbusier’s house and my opinion is going down. There are a few nice spaces, but with the exposed plumbing, sinks in closets, industrial looking washroom, cabinets pushed up against the walls, and the spaces between the inner walls and outer walls, I get a feeling of deja vu: it’s a slum dwelling by design.

Five Letters from Mexico, Collectors Reprints, Inc., Princeton, 1998.

My reaction was to think, “Well, I’m glad *they* are dead.”

Chuck: Cortez did indeed recruit from local enemies of the Aztec. There’s a bit about this in VDH’s book _Carnage and Culture_.

Thanks. I tried Googling to find photos in various places, but wading through the prose of the architectural academicians was akin to reading IRS forms or the fine print on an insurance policy, so I just gave up.