So Westerville’s Public Library is so cool!!! They have so many features that Columbus Public (which claims to be the second best library in the country) doesn’t have. Like the mp3 players that you can check out and download audio books on. Or the technology center, complete with three video editing stations, scanners printers, burners, you name it they have it. They email you when your books are almost due, which is perfect for me because I continue to lose those stupid slips of paper. I tell you I was so lost when they stopped stamping the due date on the back of books. At least that was something you couldn’t lose. Well unless you lost the book of course.
So anyway, they have a lot of really cool things, including something that I just discovered about five minutes ago. They have book club kits! Let’s say for example my friends and I were starting a book club and we wanted to read the secret life of bees. Aside from the books they have, the library has put together a kit that comes with 10 copies of the book and a discussion guide for the leader that includes reviews, questions etc. How awesome is that. I just totally love that idea. My friends and I once started a book club. It was a lot of fun, even if we only made it halfway through the book. We were reading Catch-22. It was great, I really enjoyed it, but we were all so busy with classes that it just became too difficult to get the reading in and find times to meet. But I might try it again, with some friends. Last time we met in a coffee house on campus. But it would have been easier if we had a guide to work from. I think we had decided that we were all going to bring in a set number of questions to discuss. Or maybe there was a different leader each time. I can’t remember. We weren’t 100% organized.
So that was really what I wanted to share. I am trying to keep this blog focused on writing, and books in general…sometimes I stray of topic but I am trying not to do that. Oh and speaking of off topic….my friend just walked by my desk. She just got back from Rwanda two days ago, no three. Wait what day is it? Oh well. She just got back, after about a month in Africa and I get to go and look at all the artwork and crafts she brought back to sell at our fundraiser in the fall. How awesome is that! She really is one of the coolest people I know. She was talking the other day about how hard it is to adjust each time she comes back to the U.S. These people (Rwandans) have been through so much, and are doing so much with so little, she said she just didn’t feel like she should be allowed to walk on the same earth that they did. Her quote was, “I think I’ll just try to breathe less air.”
Anyway, if you haven’t seen Hotel Rwanda, go see it. But take some tissues, and have the number of a good therapist on hand when you do. I know some people who saw it and couldn’t even manage to talk about it afterwards. It was like they couldn’t figure out how to process it. But for me, knowing people who are actively involved in helping, and having that personal connection helps. I don’t know that I will ever go to Africa, even the larger cities like Cape Town in South Africa. It’s like the only place I don’t want to travel to. I think I may have to do a little more self discovery before I get to a point where I feel ready to make that journey. When Oprah took her trip to Africa she said it was so life altering that she was glad she was older and better able to understand it all and give back. Maybe for my 50th birthday I’ll make that journey. I don’t know.
So that was my digression, which I said I wouldn’t do. But oh well. If you want to read more about Rwanda there is another post in the archives…. http://missylynnryan.blogspot.com/2005/02/the-power-of-filmthe-horrors-of-life.html
