You don’t get great doors today. Today, you get standard glass. I went to the library and you’re going too. You don’t have to pay my embarrassingly large fine, though, so that’s nice, right?
This is my library.
I can use all the libraries in Marion County, but this is our local library, and the one I have used since I was 12. Now and again we go to the big central library downtown, and rarely to the one farther east, but this is the one I like best.
Rumor has it that they’re building a new branch on the fort, so that one will be closer, but this is my library, and I will probably still use this one.
I enjoy the winding, hilly drive through the trees. We all do.
This is the library that provided the bulk of my reading and the one in which I know where everything is.
I’ll tell you though, I mostly love this library because of the way it smells. Yes, yes, it has that moldy old book smell, but mixed with other smells I can’t quite define. Somethin plastic, somethin inky, and some of that cumin/sharpened pencil/body odor smell. I love the smell of my library, and the smell is strongest in the air-lock between the doors.
After living in Hell Georgia for so many years, I was pleased when I returned to the library and it smelled exactly the same. I actually got a lil teary about it. I’d like to tell you it was just relief that I lived to smell my library again, or that I was feeling sentimental about taking my kids back there, but no, it was the smell. I am moved emotionally every time I go. I know, get a grip, Joey, Jeez.
Anyway, since the doors are a bust, look how adorable the children’s area is. Notice the beautiful archway and the random, but cheerful window placement. Heh.
Do you not want to climb in and dial a story? I totally do.
So, not my most beautiful doors post, but one dear to my heart.
#ThursdayDoors is part of an inspired post series run by Norm Frampton. To view other interesting doors, click the link and see what others are posting today.
joeyfullystated 
Thanks for the delightful little tour. We had a nice, musty smelling little library but they tore it down and built a clean-smelling brick and glass deal 😦
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Oh how sad.
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And, they had to get rid of the Library Cat, Bookems because a woman claimed she was having an allergic reaction to the books her granddaughter brought home 😦
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Jeez, Dan, this is turning into a tale of woe!
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My wife and daughter used to go to the old library and my daughter loved to pet Bookems – it really was sad. After that, they started visiting a library in a neighboring town.
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Well for pity’s sake. Can you imagine how many kids miss that cat?!? 😦
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There’s something so inviting about all of these doors. The fact that they may not be the snazziest doors ever is irrelevant, when they lead to such good things.
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Thank you, I think so too. I have noticed a tendency toward door snobbery, and while I like beautiful doors more than most people, it’s important to remember function at times as well. (Like trapping the best smells!) 🙂
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Totally agree.
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I like your library and the way you described it. The library we went to when I was a child, spanned a river. There was nothing more cool than to walk on a bridge and look at the water before entering the doors to the library.
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That sounds awesome! 😀
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Across the bridge that the library building spanned was the best part….a park with the swimming pool. They have now turned the swimming pool into a skateboard park….no local swimming pool 😦
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Oh. Well that’s sad.
I’m glad you got to enjoy it while it lasted!
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me too. We knew when we were part of the big kids group when we got to walk there without an adult
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I had that same experience as a child. When we turned 10 we could go without an adult. Oh how we swam — and then played at the park after 🙂
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I don’t care if the doors are fancy or not, a library is a sacred place. Thanks for sharing yours. I loved the Pooh Corner and yes, I could almost smell the place just from your description.
Now about that fine… 😉
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I know, right? I’m so ashamed, but then, the monies are for the libraries and that helps! 🙂
Thanks, Norm 🙂
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Those booky smells…I remember. ☺
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🙂
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I love the children’s section and such a beautiful peaceful view from that picture window. I totally get what you say about the familiar smell. I’m like a dog at the vets when it comes to associating smells and places. Some have the ability to scare the pants off me, (the dentist, for instance) but the library I went to as a child wasn’t one of them. It was an old building with wooden floors and and the mix of books/old wood/beeswax polish/ scent is one I can still remember. When I wasn’t inhaling the atmosphere I actually read a few books. 😉 I loved that old library.
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I’m so glad you can relate!
Also, ditto on the dentist.
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Lovely library. I do want to climb in a snuggle a good book.
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I had forgotten a library smell, in these days of moving and living light, the Ipad is my library but your post brought it back… Thank you for sharing, it brought back memories of the feel and smell of slightly musty books.
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Oh thank you! I’m so pleased you remembered fondly! 🙂
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That was a fun tour! Thank you!
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My pleasure, thank you!
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Sometimes you just gotta’ chuck the visual and head straight for the heart. I can relate to the smell of old books. My Grand Father had a library/parlor in his farm house with walls of old books. I always loved the way the room smelled.
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Sounds dreamy! 🙂
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Yeah, I’m glad for your library and the smell and Pooh corner and all. I think it’s more important to bring across how something makes us feel and not just amazingly sharp and horizontal and prominent door images.
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You’re very kind. This post does seem to have done well, despite the standard glass.
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I love the smell of a good library! That call -a-story beehive is so cute.
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🙂
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What a lovely library! I know exactly what you mean about the smell. I have a nose for my old high school. I noticed it the first time I walked in and could still identify it when I went back last time for a 30 year reunion. 😀
P.S. I have a library fine as well, so don’t feel bad. Mine’s outstanding – in more ways than one.
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Hah! She told me I was a week away from the letter. The LETTER, Linda! Oh the shame!
I’m glad you enjoy smelling the library smells, too 🙂
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I think I got my letter a couple of years ago. Yeah. Shame on me. 😦 😛
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I wonder if there is someone who designs libraries for many different places. Yous looks nearly identical to the Sparks branch in Sparks, NV where I used to live. Like almost exactly.
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It’s probably what was ‘trending’ at the time.
“Well all the cool libraries are doing this now…”
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Ha!!!
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YES! That is JUST how a library ought to smell! I absolutely get what you mean about getting teary about something smelling the right/same way. And I really love the children’s section — Pooh Corner! I never saw one of those beehive dial-a-story things before. They’d have to drag me out in handcuffs!
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😀 So glad you liked it!
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Utilitarian doors just have to be functional and secure and the glass is the design to let you peer inside to see more interesting things. Glad you have a library with enticing aromas; but sometimes that doesn’t always work. I retired from a major City on the West Coast and worked in an nice old wooden USO, 1-story building at one time which was later replaced with a huge modern Main Library. Only problem with that new modern building is the street denizens hung around there and used it as a day shelter and there were newspaper stories of the horrors these patrons did there and being a public facility there were limitations on enforcement (I saw and unfortunately, smelled some these patrons at times that I had to go to that library and those memories are thankfully forgotten). But lets all hope the aromas you experienced are what everyone else experiences. 🙂
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Oh I love Pooh corner – how fun!~
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🙂
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Your library is really nice looking. The children’s area is so inviting, too! Ahh, that special smell of libraries… I love it! 🙂
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🙂
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The library is one of my favorite places! I used to be there so much when living in LA, that one time my son (then 5-ish) could found his way back home by walking for an hour or so.
When you don’t live in a larger city or a touristy area, it can be a puzzle to find some nice historical doors, other than the daily functional ones!
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I live in a big city but it’s not always good weather matching my schedule, so sometimes, it’s just whatever doors I see 🙂
I appreciate that you’re a library lover — thanks for coming by!
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Any door that leads into a library is a door I love. Period. Even though most of them are just boring glass.
janet
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Sweet but not so standard and definitely not ordinary doors post! I adore your children’s area, especially think “Pooh Corner” is a perfect name, Joey. I like the way you travel through trees to get there. I am glad I am not the only sentimental person who gets misty eyed over tradition. My grandies go to the same school their parents went to, while they also have some new upgrades inside the library and the front awning now looks like a cool raised roof, it has the paste, book glue, moldy books smell at our local library. Yes, they have little boxes of sharpened pencils so I smell this, too. 🙂
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You’ve inspired me to go smell my library. Maybe we’ll get a book or two while we’re there.
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That’s ok, I went to our library yesterday and paid my own massive overdue fine.
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But what an amazing treasure trove behind the doors – much prefer a plain door with books behind than a pretty door with nothing behind!
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Thank you 🙂
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Library doors are magic doors because you can pick out a book and travel to wherever you want. 🙂
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The library in my hometown was located in a basement when I was kid. I LOVED going there. The journey down the stairs felt like I was entering a special space hidden away that few people knew about. Did I mention I LOVED going there? It probably had a smell too … but it’s long been forgotten.
The library was moved to a bright, airy place some time ago. It just isn’t the same.
… and the city library close to where I live now? Ugh.
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I’m glad this reminded you of such happy times 🙂
I actually got a lot of sad library moving stories on this post. Seems many of us preferred the old places and spaces.
Sorry.
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I think that’s bound to happen though. We become very nostalgic about the places associated with our youth.
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