How I Write This Blog

Very slowly.

This morning, I reviewed last year’s New Year resolutions and remarked to my partner David my disappointment with the outcome. He, of course, shot back that I seem to have done very well. I completed most of the goals on my list in some fashion, if not exactly as I had written them. It’s true.  The way I saw it: I had completed goals in some fashion, not exactly as I hoped.  Two sides of the same coin, huh?

One of my resolutions from last year was to update this blog, which I did, but not to my satisfaction.  Not as often as I’d have liked.  Part of the issue, I think, is my tendency towards perfection.  And, as they say, the perfect is often the enemy of the good.

Here are the steps I take to write a blog post:

• Visit a library and take photos
• Edit photos
• Upload photos to my Flickr account
• Think of an enticing catch to grab readers
• Write two to three drafts of each post
• Update blog and fidget with photo placement

Not a ton of steps, but enough to slow me down, particularly when we don’t have Internet access in our apartment and our personal computers are all circa 2000.

Still, I have high hopes for this blog, and so I get begin again.  Hello 2010.  Hope to see you ‘round these parts more often.

Librarytour blog goals for 2010

• Learn to write shorter posts
• Tour my nearby branches of the BPL and Brookline libraries
• Post once per month in 2010
• Create a photo banner to give the blog a more personalized feel
• Convince my mother to guest post

Cool…New library for my list

Boston.com notes that the Hyde Park Library is a great place to go to de-stress. Thanks, Boston.com. It’s on my list.

In the address book you go!

You know you’re a library-obsessive when you find yourself wishing again and again that you had the local branch’s hours listed in your address book.  Today, I loaded three nearby libraries into my Palm Pilot.  It’s a serious MUST HAVE BOOKS move, I know, but I think I’m ready for it.  I’m new to neighborhood and haven’t yet had a chance to tour the nearby JP Branch, Connolly Branch, and Roslindale.   Also, in doing so, I discovered a cool feature on the BPL’s new website: a listing of what each branch specializes in.  Check it out (no pun intended, seriously).

Wait -are THOSE the John Singer Sargent’s?

Can you believe that I’ve never taken an official tour of the Copley Boston Public Library? My library love? My adopted-hometown branch? Well, it shows. My partner and I took his sister to enjoy the sights at BPL and I was wrong not once, but on several occasions, about which paintings were the famed John Singer Sargent’s. Oops.

I leave you with this image of the podium of a missing bust in Bates Hall.

Fancy couch

These couches reside in the Dudley branch of the Boston Public library.  I took a photo of them because, well, they were just sitting out there, like they wanted some attention!

Cardinals for the win

bpl birds close-up

Originally uploaded by Phobean

The central branch of the Boston Public Library is by far my most visited library in the city (next is probably the Allston branch, then Brookline’s central branch.) Partially because it’s a gorgeous library and I’ve written over 70% of my to-be-published young adult novel there, and partially because there’s always something strange going on for which I never get an explanation. The BPL is, to me, a great mystery.

Take for instance, the little bird in the above picture. One day, an entire flock of these ceramic birds appeared atop the molding in Bates Hall. I haven’t a clue why. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure they disappeared again shortly after.

Another example is the leather chairs. Once I walked into the mural room next to Bates Hall and it was full of gorgeous, comfortable looking leather chairs. No explanation. I thought, “Hot dog!” Comfortable chairs. I was so excited. And then they disappeared. Not a trace. I didn’t see them for months. I had a hunch they’d show up again, though, and they did. Now they’ve been placed in different locations around the library. I sit in them on special occasion.

Yet another example is the time I walked by to see not one, but two trumpeters standing on the steps outside the McKim building. A red carpet had been rolled down the steps to signify some sort of official event. As very finely dressed people (attending a wedding perhaps) walked up the steps, the trumpets sounded out a royal sounding tune. Every single time someone approached the door. I was mystified. I stood in the rain, seven o’clock some chilly evening, and stared for maybe ten minutes.

I think, in the future, I would like trumpeters to follow ME around, playing a tune to announce me every time I step into a library. That would be grand.