Independent Study

I am currently enjoying an extended sabbatical. That is, I haven't quite convinced myself to look for a job yet (it's on my to-do list, I swear). Instead, I'm using up my new town's free services, first and foremost, the library.

Woburn Public Library,
aka Winn Memorial Library

Statue of  Benjamin Thompson.

Isn't it pretty? The architect was Henry H. Richardson, who also designed Trinity Church in the Back Bay of Boston. The statue out front is of Benjamin Thompson, a Woburn-born physicist who served as a soldier for the Loyalists during the Revolution. After the war, he moved back to London. Apparently, all has been forgiven, and he now keeps a careful eye on the courthouse across the street.

The book stacks in the morning light.

When I moved here, I pictured endless hours spent loitering on the upper levels of the stacks, like Burgess Meredith in that Twilight Zone episode before he breaks his glasses. Imagine my disappointment when I learned that the stairs to the upper level have been chained off. The lovely iron balconies have become too rickety (librarian's words, not mine) and only library employees are allowed up. My inner reaction? "That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was all the time I needed....*sob*."

But onward. I am now happily requesting and checking out books with abandon, everything from 84, Charing Cross Road to the Prose Edda. Let the semester begin!