By the time you read this, I will be back in Canada with the cold and snow; but as I write, I am basking in the summer sun of New Zealand. Whenever I travel, I always like to check out the reading material on offer. This can mean visiting local libraries, book stores or perusing the book shelves in people’s homes. Since I was visiting family, there were no compunctions about browsing through various collections. Sometimes, this provides a trip down memory lane, as at my mother’s home, finding volumes that have been around my entire life. Discovering the entire collection of Anne of Green Gables novels had me wondering if that was where my interest in Canada was first fostered. At my sister’s home, her vast and glorious collection needed some major organization and culling. (Yes, you can take the librarian out of the library, but you can never take the librarian out of the girl.) This led to piles of books on the living floor sorted into rough categories, before they were declared “keep” or “discard”. I was intrigued by many titles which meant a little peak inside was required, so the process has been slow. I have promised her that I will finish before I leave and that all keepers will be reshelved in an orderly manner that will be easy to locate. As she is an award winning author her research books cover such broad topics as magic, ancient Egypt, and Forensic Science. If nothing else, I will now be able to commit a murder and hide the body so no one can find it.
Libraries in new locales are always a magnet for me. Since I work in a library, this is the only time I get to see the library from a visitor’s perspective. It’s fascinating to see what is the same no matter where you are in the world or what language is being spoken. I like to search out New Zealand authors whose books we are unlikely to see in Canada. Comfy chairs, magazines and reliable internet seem to be essential everywhere. As my mother does not have internet access in her home, it was at her small-town library, through the magic of Facetime, that she got to see her great-granddaughter for the first time and I got to see them blow kisses to each other.
If you love books like I do, bookstores are a must when you play tourist. This is a great time to search out a new poet or children’s authors that are unknown on the other side of the Pacific. So, yes, I will be returning with some new titles, though airline weight restrictions means that there won’t be as many as I would like.
Since I am several thousand kilometers away, I can’t remember what is happening at the library in March, but all programs and events will be on the website or Facebook page. I am going to grab my fizzy water, go sit in the lounge chair in the sun and look at the new book I bought this morning and enjoy the fact that snow boots, jackets, mitts and toques are far, far away!