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The photo above was taken last night, at the Douglass-Truth branch of the Seattle Public Library, in the Central District. Shobhit attended a Tech for Housing meeting there, and since I had nothing else to do and it's only about a mile and a half away on 23rd & Yesler, I decided to walk there so I could walk him back after his meeting. I had only ever seen the exterior of the building anyway, and was interested in seeing the inside for once.
The building is so modern looking now, I am rather surprised to learn today that it was
built in 1914! It got an upgrade in 1986, and probably most relevant to its current iteration, an expansion in 2006. I wonder if that was when they dug out the basement section where all the stacks of books are located. It has a rather
unusual layout (scroll to bottom of the page for a photo gallery at that second link).
I took the above photo standing at the top of the grand staircase that leads down to the basement level, looking straight ahead to an art installation on the wall that is roughly actually at ground level. I wanted to use it for today's DLU (Daily Lunch Update), so I decided the other two photos I use will also be from libraries: the one below is from the Central Library of the Greater Victoria Public Library in B.C.; the photo at the bottom of this post is from the Boulder Public Library in Colorado.
Much like my desire to tour State Capitol buildings whenever I get a chance, I have also taken to checking out Central Library buildings when I travel, especially if they have distinctive architecture. That's how I wound up with a photo album dedicated just to the Toronto Public Library after Shobhit's and my anniversary trip there last June.
After that, and until this morning, I had a collection of photo albums on Flickr dedicated just to public library buildings: the Central branch of the Seattle Public Library's grand opening in 2004; the Boulder Public Library which I visited with Sara W in 2022; the famous State Library of South Australia which we visited in 2023; and the Toronto Public Library. That was four photo albums, but as of this morning, after I did some searching for other shots in my photo history, I have doubled it.
The new ones, from libraries I mostly visited years ago, aren't quite as big. But, I now have dedicated photo albums for the central branch of the New York Public Library (8 photos, mostly from 2010); the West Hollywood Library (20 photos spanning 2012 through 2016 but mostly from 2012); the Renton Library (only 3 photos, but very cool as it straddles the Cedar River in much the same way the Boulder library crosses over Boulder Creek); and the Greater Victoria Public Library (also only 3 photos, but I felt it qualified so I still added it). Thus, a
collection of eight libraries I have visited or toured over the years.
As a rule, this collection only includes the main or central branch building of library systems. I suppose Renton is kind of an exception, as it's actually just one branch of the King County Library system. Apparently the largest of those libraries is in Bellevue; I should go check it out sometime. I don't think I have ever been to it.
I wonder if the central library in Phoenix is worth anything, architecturally? I just googled it. It appears to be! I need to put this on our list for our trip there next month.
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— पाँच हजार छह सौ सत्तासी —
Anyway. That largely covers my evening last night, aside from watching TV. I made chai and I had leftover pasta for dinner, which I consumed while watching this week's episode of
Agatha All Along on Disney+.
I wound up on the phone with Gabriel for 36 minutes, cutting into the last several minutes of the episode. At first he left me a voicemail in which he said, "Goddammit Matthew, I have things to say. Jesus Christ. Call me back." I did not feel my phone vibrate when he called, so I called him back eight minutes later. He had already fallen asleep in his hot tub and could no longer remember what he wanted to talk about.
It took us a good twenty minutes to figure out, during which time I turned the TV off, grabbed my coat, and started walking to the Douglass-Truth branch library. We talked a lot about movies. We finally hung up shortly before I reached the libary, so then I watched the last few minutes of
Agatha All Along on my phone before going inside.
I spent a few minutes exploring the building, which is not that big. I found a couple of science fiction novels, not on the shelves, but on the library website on my phone, to add my library holds. I got the titles from an
Esquire list of the best science fiction novels of all time. Several in the top 20 that I had never heard of sound really cool; I added three.
Eventually Shobhit's meeting ended, and we walked back home together. Then we watched the season finale of
The Rings of Power, which was spectacular, except for
that one incredibly stupid bit.
— पाँच हजार छह सौ सत्तासी —
[posted 12:29 pm]
