Made an abortive trip to the library tonight. I'd been planning to finish the book I was reading, probably return it tonight, and do some writing as well.
A few problems made themselves apparent. It was busy, which in and of itself is a good thing, but made table space a little harder to come by. I found that I had a book with me but not the one I was planning to read.
There was also a guy in the foyer loudly breaking up with his girlfriend on the phone. Maybe "breaking up with his girlfriend" isn't the right phrase. For one thing I didn't hear the name he was using and don't want to make assumptions. Also it sounded like she (if she was a she) had already shacked up with another guy, which made the "breaking up" part somewhat unnecessary. The key point for me was the "loud" bit, which was obviously the point. He was making a play for sympathy and didn't see how the library might not have been the best place for this approach. And the library staff were too timid to deal with it, or maybe not paid enough.
All in all it seemed like I might be able to get more done at home.
A few problems made themselves apparent. It was busy, which in and of itself is a good thing, but made table space a little harder to come by. I found that I had a book with me but not the one I was planning to read.
There was also a guy in the foyer loudly breaking up with his girlfriend on the phone. Maybe "breaking up with his girlfriend" isn't the right phrase. For one thing I didn't hear the name he was using and don't want to make assumptions. Also it sounded like she (if she was a she) had already shacked up with another guy, which made the "breaking up" part somewhat unnecessary. The key point for me was the "loud" bit, which was obviously the point. He was making a play for sympathy and didn't see how the library might not have been the best place for this approach. And the library staff were too timid to deal with it, or maybe not paid enough.
All in all it seemed like I might be able to get more done at home.
2 comments:
I'm sorry your sojourn at the library wasn't the experience you've come to expect there. While it's easy to understand your discomfort at having to listen to the bad behavior of that young man on the phone, I'm afraid the acting out of emotional issues in public has become much more common than it ever was in times past. Cell phone technology has made a lot of people oblivious to what used to be known as common courtesy.
Hope you found the book you wanted to read once you got home.
A lot of people do seem to think that carrying a phone puts them in a zone of perfect privacy, sort of as if the functioning phone booths disappearing from the world at large are relocating to the minds of commuters. The situation here was a little different, since he seemed to want attention. He probably shouldn't have wanted it at that none too classy time of his life, but there you are. There could be a common source of these syndromes, though.
Yeah, the book was where I'd seen it last. I'd just forgotten to pack it.
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