All the books of the world will not bring you happiness, but build a secret path toward your heart.

What you need is in you: the sun, the stars, the moon, the illumination you were seeking shines up from within you.

The quest for wisdom made you comb the libraries. Now every page speaks the truth that flashes forth from you.

–Hermann Hesse, "Books"

When I was growing up, we had a branch library we could walk to. Getting a library card was the first form of identification we little kids had and we were so proud. It didn’t cost anything, of course, which is good because we didn’t have much money except for the penny candy store.

It seemed to be like a sacred place and you always had to be quiet and talk in whispers so as not to disturb anyone reading. Somehow that made it seem even more special. At home, we mostly had to be quiet when someone was sleeping, like a new baby or a grandmother. The reading that was done at home was the newspaper by our parents and the Books of Knowledge, our schoolbooks, and comic books for us kids.

So to be able to show our library card and to be able and trusted to take books home for free and return them in time or renew them was a great privilege. There was a small fee for being late and we were careful not to let that happen so we could keep our money for the penny candy store.

I don’t remember about books being banned back then until I got older and learned about the Nazis burning books which was so horrible to us. We knew that books were a treasure. I can still remember the smell of the polished floors, the ferns on those tall stands, what seemed like a million books all nicely organized on shelves, and the card file and learning to use the Dewey decimal system.

This was one of the best times of my life.