Monday, May 16, 2011

A library of memories

This post really came about because a friend posted this picture on her Facebook account. Doesn't it bring back tons of memories? Not too long ago, borrowing books at the library meant queuing up at the counter, slotting the book's borrowing card into your own library card and then bringing the book to the librarian for the due date to be stamped.

This was the ritual I grew up with as a faithful visitor to Marine Parade Library (not the current one, this one was at the site where a spanking new NTUC Finest now sits.) We were then only given 4 cards each, so I would often use my parents' cards to add on to my precious weekly allocation.

Lugging home my hoard, I would dive right into the selection, even at the dining table and late into the night. To say I was a bookworm would be an understatement. Since I only received books as gifts on my birthday, the library was a necessity to to feed my reading obsession. In fact, my childhood would have been miserable if I didn't have access to the library.

The selection of children's books at the library wasn't terribly inspiring but I grew up reading many of the perennial favourites by Beverly Cleary, Mary Norton, LM Montgomery and Elizabeth Enright, for example. Each time a new book was released onto the shelves, it would be snapped up eagerly. Shows you how many kids were hungry for reading material back then.

Back then, all books were bound in sturdy hard covers with glossy sleeves wrapped in plastic, unlike the paperbacks in the library these days which get dingy and torn so easily. Somehow, I feel that modern libraries have lost a part of their essence without the musty smell and rich texture of hard backs.

Nowadays, borrowing and returning books is a simple affair, all automated at self-service machines. The convenience can't be beat, I have to admit, but a perverse part of me misses the librarian stamping the due date on each book with such convincing authority. Growing up, I actually thought being a librarian must be one of the best jobs in the world because you get to read all day (besides stamping the books, of course).

As proof of how much the library was a part of my youth, I still have these in my possession:

My old library cards!! How many of you still have these? Go on, call me a hoarder. In my defence, I only hoard the really important stuff.

"I remember being in the public library and my jaw just aching as I looked around at all those books I wanted to read. There just wasn't time enough to read everything I wanted to read." - Charles Kuralt

8 comments:

kjj said...

u were ALSO in the marine parade library?????? eeks! so was i!!! used to walk over under the blazing sun from Katong. i didn't keep my library cards, i think, when i moved out of my childhood home. oh well. :(

monlim said...

KJJ: Saturdays were usually spent at my grandma's who lived in one of the Marine Drive HDB flats, so I would walk over the library. Maybe you were one of the kids I used to see lying in wait for the new books!!

Anonymous said...

I think I have this library cards in my 'treasure' box deep inside the store room. I only borrow chinese story books.

Chris

monlim said...

Chris: Yay, another hoarder, lol! I agree these are treasures :)

justpassingby said...

Eh!!! I was also a regular at the MP Library!!! We lived in Marine Drive then... I was in Blk 74.... hurhur... so I probably saw you too, cos I'd go down on a Saturday as well, and lug home 11 (children only got 3 green cards) then later 12(when I got promoted to the yellow cards and got 4 of them)every Saturday and finish every single one by Sunday evening! hahaha.

monlim said...

JPB: Lol, it just amazes me how minute Singapore is!

Yin said...

me too, me too! Fellow marine parade library user here! I remember howo impressed I was with the huge space in the middle where they stored all the library cards, and find them like magic when we returned the books, :P And you still have them!! !Actually I came by to thank you for your recommendations some time ago of Anthony Horowitz books, J finally started on them and love them, but has now devoured almost every one available at Tampines library (they have about ten the last I checked), so I need the next book tip for Roald Dahl lovers please!!

monlim said...

Yin: Gosh, so many of the M Parade library users are here!! The red brick was so iconic, I remember feeling uplifted just approaching the building.

Glad J enjoyed the Anthony Horowitz books! I think he wrote lots more, so if you don't mind buying, you may want to check out bookdepository.com. I've had less luck with Andre, he still hasn't finished the set I bought, sigh...

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