Well, it's a job just like any other. Good work with lots of variety. Monday, we burn Miller; Tuesday, Tolstoy; Wednesday, Walt Whitman; Friday, Faulkner; and Saturday and Sunday, Schopenhauer and Sartre. We burn them to ashes and then burn the ashes. That's our official motto.
~~~
To learn how to find, one must first learn how to hide.
-from Fahrenheit 451 (1966), spoken by fireman Guy Montag
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Is it true that a long time ago, firemen used to put out fires and not burn books?
-from Fahrenheit 451 (1966), question from Clarisse
~~~
THE CAPTAIN: Come on now, madam. We're going to burn the house.
BOOK LADY: No!
THE CAPTAIN: What do you want, martyrdom?
BOOK LADY: I want to die as I've lived.
THE CAPTAIN: You must have read that in there. Now, look, I'm not going to ask you again. Are you going?
BOOK LADY: These books were alive! They spoke to me!
-from Fahrenheit 451 (1966), conversation before a blaze
(Text on back of postcard:)
My hometown library, the library of my youth. A great and wondrous place where the dense air common around quantities of old books was freshened by live, lush foliage.....
Grab a book and sit next to a growing indoors tree and share in precious moments of absorption. Research for hours until you are seeing spots, then give your eyes a rest and your body some movement by tracing the circular stairs up and down each level. No running; the librarians will not tolerate it.
From the top level look out over the inside landscape of the library and feel in your bones that it is a part of you. Sense that you are blessed to have it. Fall in love with a place for the first time in your life and know you will never forget it.......
Decades later return to the library in downtown Reno to show it to your spouse. See that it is older but well maintained and appreciated, and is now a part of an area-wide library system. Breathe the library's tropical air. Touch a branch of a third-generation philodendron. Feel an inner peace and delight; remember. Select this postcard as a keepsake. Fifteen years later, share it on something called a BLOG for Old Postcard Wednesday. Provide a link to the Washoe County Library website, where the following information may be found:
By 1966, Washoe County had two libraries on wheels. In May of 1966, Reno saw the grand opening and dedication of the Downtown Reno Library, a gift from the Max C. Fleischmann Foundation to the people of Washoe County. The architecturally unique building designed by Hewitt C. Wells continues to serve residents and visitors to Downtown Reno.
Be thankful that Fahrenheit 451 is only fiction.
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