The library window

Returning to Mardy Grothe’s book Metaphors Be With You and its metaphorical quotations relating to literary topics, let us today consider some of those about libraries.

Jorge Luis Borges

I had always imagined Paradise as a kind of library. — Jorge Luis Borges

Don’t we all, if we imagine Paradise at all, imagine it as being full of those people and things and activities we like best? Or how else can it be paradise? For someone who loves books, a paradise needs books. I tend to think of a library, particular my own personal library, as a kind of earthly paradise.

A library doesn’t need windows. A library is a window. — Stewart Brand

Libraries, or at least small libraries, tend to have few windows. That's because windows take up wall space, and small libraries, such as that room in your home where you keep your books, may need all the wall space possible. Larger libraries, such as the Largo Library where I sit now, have interior shelves, where most books are stored. So there are windows that let in plenty of light. The natural light helps, but still Brand's comment is correct. Glass windows or not, a library gives its patrons a glorious view of the world around them.

A library is a place where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity. — Germaine Greer

One of those windows that a library provides, at least for youngsters of a certain age, is that one allowing a peek into sexual matters. Nowadays computers and Google provide that window, but in my day there was National Geographic magazine, dictionaries and the dirty parts of novels to sweep innocence away.

Your library is your portrait. — Holbrook Jackson

I have touched on this subject many times, but it bears repeating. We are what we read. Our books, those we find important enough to keep in our homes (whether we actually read them or not) describe us, sort of in the way that our Google searches describe us.