Book nerd

I've blogged before about the time I put on a backpack and jogged to three different libraries in one outing. I love everything about libraries, except maybe for when there are people with BO seated close enough to me that I can smell it. (I believe the library is for everyone, including the smelly. But I have a sensitive nose.)

Anyhoo, we were discussing libraries at the new book club I joined. Four of us were all about them, while one of us was grossed out at the prospect. She didn't say so explicitly, as she was outnumbered, but you could tell. She skeeves on libraries.

When I mentioned I'm in walking distance of a Cambridge and a Somerville branch library, a fellow book-clubber asked how Norman was doing. I knew just who she was talking about. He's been working at the Cambridge branch for 22 years, apparently, which I found out today when I stopped in after my run and saw a big poster announcing his retirement later this month.

Being a New Hampshirite at heart, my tendency is to shun all human contact outside of people I've known for 30 years. Yet my time in Vermont left me a smidge hippie. The sum effect of these polar states has made me irritated by and yet kind of in love with community. And Norman is a part of my community. So I think I'll go to his retirement party, because even though I don't talk to anyone else at the library, ever, it just feels right.