#32: North Park Branch

NORTH PARK BRANCH

Visiting Time: 11:00-12:00PM

Did I get lost on my way? Nope

Book Checked out: Turning the Pages: San Diego public library history, 1882-1982 (Clara E. Breed)

Book Selection: 3 bookmarks
Seating: 3 bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 2 bookmarks

Total: 12 bookmarks

This library is busier than Starbucks on a Monday morning. There were people reading magazines, people reading books, people in the stacks, on their laptops, on the library's computers, kids in their section. The place was hopping.

I can't go through all the San Diego libraries without learning about them through a book. Today, I checked out a book by one of the library's longest-serving librarians. It was really cool to read references to many of the city's branches and be able to think back over this month and say, "Oh, yeah. City Heights. The one with the bookmobile." I felt so in-the-know.

Picture:

(Looking towards the children's area.)

#31: Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch

VALENCIA PARK/MALCOLM X BRANCH

Visiting Time: 2:00-3:00PM

Did I get lost on my way? Nope

Book Checked out: Innumeracy: Mathematical illiteracy and its consequences (John Allen Paulos)

Book Selection: 3 bookmarks
Seating: 3 bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 3 bookmarks

Total: 13 bookmarks

I knew it would happen sooner or later. On today's library trek, I ended up at a branch I'd previously been to. Of course it was nice to be back, but it threw off my catch-up-from-last-weekend schedule.

Before erroneously showing up at Oak Park, I checked out the Valencia Park branch. I am beginning to think that the single biggest impact on a favorable library atmosphere is a high ceiling. This branch feels open and airy, bright, and a place you could study (which many people were doing) or read for pleasure (which I was doing).

This pleasure reading concerned the problems that arise in a society that either doesn't value or doesn't bother with getting statistics correct.

From the introduction:

"I remember once listening to someone at a party drone on about the difference between 'continually' and 'continuously.' Later that evening we were watching the news and the TV weathercaster announced that there was a 50 percent chance of rain for Saturday and a 50 percent chance for Sunday, and concluded that there was therefore a 100 percent change of rain that weekend. The remark went right by the self-styled grammarian, and even after I explained the mistake to him, he wasn't nearly as indignant as he would have been had the weathercaster left a dangling participle."

So writers and mathematicians aren't so different after all.

Paulos' story of the partygoer's error reminded me of Wednesday's ESOL class, in which a student asked me whether the word "studying" were a gerund in this sentence:

"She's in her room studying."

I didn't know. (In my defense, I've been scarred by two years of Latin and its inane use of gerunds and gerundives).

The professor and I figured it out, though. "Studying" is part of the present progressive "is studying" and simply split by a prepositional phrase. Occasionally, it is good to be called out for not knowing something. Because when you find the answer, you won't want to forget it and again risk embarrassment.

Pictures:

(Awkward photo of center computer terminals. From here, a small ramp leads up to half of the book stacks.)

(Fountain near the entrance.)

("Paleolithic Outcroppings" [according to a sign] in the branch's parking lot.)

#30: University Community Branch

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY BRANCH

Visiting Time: 11:45-12:30PM

Did I get lost on my way? Nope

Book Checked out: The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exúpery)

Book Selection: 2 bookmarks
Seating: 1 bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 2 bookmarks

Total: 9 bookmarks

I came to this library knowing what I wanted. Over breakfast, I'd told Julie how I'd enjoyed reading a ghost story to Bryan in Spanish ("¿Dónde está mi d-e-e-e-d-o?"), and she'd told me how much she'd enjoyed reading The Little Prince in a college French class. The La Jolla branch didn't have a copy, but the UC one did. Reading this book makes me want to grow my own perfect, single rose. So far, the only two books I've read cover to cover in this library marathon have been juvenile/children's books. And no, I'm not embarrassed about this.

I must say I was underwhelmed by this branch. Of course, its books are as good as the ones in the swanky La Jolla branch. But there were only four padded chairs, the rest being hard wood. And then there was the disagreeable patron who was unhappy with his computer's wireless connection (I think?) and let the staff know it. I like to think my days at Starbucks have improved my eavesdropping skills, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what his beef was. To be fair, I'm not sure the staff understood either, and quite possibly not even the man himself. Can't we all just get along? Maybe tomorrow I'll check out something about Rodney King.

So I took this charming children's book home, and read its second half in peace (and heat!) in the backyard.

Picture:

(Unfortunately, these are the best seats in the house.)

#29: La Jolla/Riford Branch

LA JOLLA/RIFORD BRANCH (You gotta have friends)

Visiting Time: 10:30-11:30AM

Did I get lost on my way? Nope

Book Checked out: Fly-fishing for Sharks: An angler's journey across America (Richard Louv)

Book Selection: 3 bookmarks
Seating: 4+ bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 3 bookmarks

Total: 14 bookmarks

This is the type of library one could spend an afternoon at. Three levels, lots of cushioned seating (pictures better than mine can be found here), and plenty of space to spread out. The branch was built in 1989 and expanded in 1994. Parking in this park of La Jolla is tight, but a librarian named Deborah told me library staff has an alley they park at. It reminded me of when I worked nearby a couple years ago, and sometimes had to move my car several times a day, because all I could find was two-hour parking. Ah, barely-above-minimum-wage work.

I ambled through the basement stacks for quite some time before settling on a book about fishing. It took all of my might (and the public accountability of this blog) not to break my rule of only borrowing books by authors I've never read before and check out Bill Bryson's Africa Diary. Or The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed. But wait until next week, when my library excursions are over. I'll be coming for you, Bryson and McPhee.

Pictures:

(The only bummer about this library is that almost half of the adult books are in the basement.)

(Reading area on the third floor.)

(Covered reading porch on the ground level with fireplace and water fountain. This room was open-air before the expansion.)

#28: North University Community Branch

NORTH UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY BRANCH (You gotta have friends)

Visiting Time: 4:15-4:45PM

Did I get lost on my way? Nope

Book Checked out: Take this Advice: The Best Graduation Speeches Ever Given (Sandra Bark, editor)

Book Selection: 3 bookmarks
Seating: 3 bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 3 bookmarks

Total: 13 bookmarks

Librarians have told me how great this branch is. It didn't disappoint. And apparently I and these librarians aren't the only ones who feel this way, because this branch was hopping. It's set in a new part of UTC, amidst megalithic apartment buildings that were burned down by ecoterrorists in 2003.

I tried to find a humor book, but everything was either politically related or involved bodily functions. So I ended up with a compilation of college graduation speeches. Tonight, Bryan is going to hear Will Farrell's 2003 address to Harvard, and Mary Robinson's 2004 speech to Emory graduates.

Pictures:

(DNA? RNA? A divining rod? I'll have to ask Bryan tonight.)

(Adjacent to the library is a dog park!)

#27: San Ysidro Branch

SAN YSIDRO BRANCH

Visiting Time: 2:45-3:15PM

Did I get lost on my way? Nope

Book Checked out: Historias de Miedo 1 (Alvin Schwartz)

Book Selection: 1 bookmarks
Seating: 2 bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 4 bookmarks

Total: 11 bookmarks

After being out of town this past weekend, I am doubling up on libraries to make sure I visit all thirty-six in thirty-six days. After leaving Otay Mesa, I continued south a few more miles to the San Ysidro branch. As this semester's Spanish class looks like it will disappoint--and owing to the fact that I was right next to the Mexico border--I checked out a book of Spanish ghost stories. Si mi professora no quiere enseñar español, me puedo enseñar.

I talked with a librarian here named Mike, a substitute who fills in wherever there's a need. I've talked to quite a few of substitutes this past month, and they have all been a helluva a lot smarter than the teacher substitutes I used to have in school.

One of San Ysidro's permanent librarians (Lorena?) told me the branch opened in 1924 as a county library. It became a city library in 1957, and in 1984 was remodeled and expanded (see picture below). At some point in the future, it's supposed to get replaced with something even bigger.

Pictures:

(Side view. Until 1984, the library was just the left half of the building.)

#26: Otay Mesa-Nestor Branch

OTAY MESA/NESTOR BRANCH

Visiting Time: 1:45-2:30

Did I get lost on my way? Nope. :)

Book Checked out: The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming (Shreve Stockton)

Book Selection: 2 bookmarks
Seating: 3 bookmarks
Staff: 4 bookmarks
Architecture/Atmosphere: 2 bookmarks

Total: 11 bookmarks

At Starbucks this morning, I sat next to a trio of homeless people who'd bought coffee and were sharing a newspaper. Not long after sitting down, one man began reminiscing about the time before he'd lost his sense of smell.

Then he proceeded to tell the woman in their group how he and the other man had yesterday gone through the trash cans of what I believe is my complex. Apparently they'd made a good haul, filling two big bags with aluminum cans.

They read the paper some more, and then the second man began reading facts from an article about the La Cañada wildfire. It reminded the first man of San Diego's 07 wildfires, and he described how he'd lived and eaten at the Qualcomm evacuation center. After a few days, the volunteers began asking for names and addresses--which he didn't have--so he had to move on. But he said "it was good while it lasted." The three of them thought maybe they'd try to make it up to LA, and their evacuation shelters.

Towards the end, the first man said this: "I miss two things. A refrigerator and a shower. That's it."

This is a longwinded introduction to say that, after such a morning at Starbucks, I went to the Otay Mesa library looking for a book on homelessness. Surely, I thought, someone's written a memoir about having been homeless. It seems like good book idea, but I couldn't find it. What I did check out didn't disappoint, though, which is proof to me that one can't over-think things.

I checked out The Daily Coyote, the memoir of a writer/photographer who moves to Wyoming. The writing is deeply felt and, as it's accompanied by some of the author's photographs, is something I can recommend to my father.

Anyone know who the Nestor benefactor is?

Pictures:

(A picture of a picture.)

(Courtyard. Really pleasant in the shade. In the sun, freakin hot.)

(View of the library from the street below.)