Library Meditations

I spent part of yesterday in the library, renewing a couple books and looking for new ones. My practice is to head right over to the new fiction section, and then to indulge in exactly what we were taught not to do in elementary school. I love judging books by their covers.

I stand in front of the shelves and pick them up, the slim volumes with high impact graphics, the big hardcovers with faded sepia pictures on the front. I read the title, see who's quoted on the back, occasionally glance at the description inside the book jacket. And then I assemble my little pile, based entirely on what they look like.

I've almost never heard of any of the titles I bring homes, and few of the authors. This book selection practice is, for me, a moment of trusting what I see, and what others tell me. It's also a chance to try something out about which I have almost no knowledge...to open myself to whatever lies between that front and back cover that I found appealing.

Occasionally I find that the book and I just don't agree--not the genre I had hoped for, or writing I find tedious. But most of the time I'm invited into a world, a life, a story that I hadn't expected and that I love suddenly knowing. Which, when you think about it, is true in life, too. So this week, I invite you to pick up all kinds of different books, all kinds of different people, and welcome the adventure of finding out what's inside.