Pacific

Torpor.  I seem to be recovering from vacation & the first week back at work.  Today I shuffled around, buying food & returning library books.  I achieved very little else.  I've been lazy in body & mind.  Getting to the library was good though. I do like the Pacific branch of the BPL, with its semi-circular design, & elegant balcony.  It was the first Carnegie branch library in Brooklyn, opened in 1903,  and was almost demolished in the 70s.  There's a good deal of original detail left, and the children's room (a real room, not a section) has a comfortable, lived-in feel.  It's the perfect size for a library branch, & exudes an air of both domesticity & grandeur.  When you step through its doors you're a Reader, and here, at least, the act is holy.

I sat up in the balcony, reading Ben Katchor's The Cardboard Valise, & glancing down from time to time at the hushed & almost empty floor below.