The Christian Science Monitor

An unquiet realization about libraries

STORY HOUR AT THE FREDERICK COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY IN FREDERICK, MD.

The irony didn’t dawn immediately. Only on the way home. The book I had just returned to our local library was called “Unquiet Landscape: Places and Ideas in 20th Century English Painting,” by Christopher Neve. He ranged across his subject and widened my view.

But the ironic word for me in his book’s title, I realized, was “unquiet.” It applied not to the landscape but to our local urban library. I have visited again since then, and my conclusion is much.

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