Sorry this is a bit late. I was visiting with family on the actual 15th, but I am back. although I miss my family back in Virginia. I was very happy to get back to Tennessee. I do not miss the traffic, the bad roads, the noise of the city. I am just not a city girl. Eight days out there was too much.
As I told you in an earlier blog, I have been reading a book called The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arhtur Der Weduwen. It traces the history of book collections from the earliest of times, including the famous Library of Alexandria, to the modern digital collections that are emerging. It is interesting that at one time, before the ability to mass print books, they were considered treasures and sometimes even required as part of a treaty. There are stories of con-men and counterfeiters, deceiving many with copies of valuable editions of ancient classics. One common theme was how an individual would create a great collection, only for it to be sold of piecemeal after their death or donated and neglected until there was almost nothing left of it. (This was the case for the son of Christopher Columbus.) It was also disheartening to read about the number of libraries destroyed by wars and lost in fires. It is a good read and I hope that one day it may get to travel to visit some of the great libraries that still exist. If our library doesn