There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away . . .

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote these lines.

For readers, the current hard times may mean fewer opportunities to buy the new books that keep presses constantly rolling, regardless of what you may have heard about the disappearance of ink on paper as a medium.

In this season of hard times that may or may not turn out to be as bad as the Great Depression, but at least rates comparison, the public library is more valuable than ever. And it’s always one of any community’s most important institutions.

Librarian Mark Warren reports in the current Friends of Upshur County Library Newsletter that the library has been buzzing with activity this fall.

STORY TIME and arts and crafts activities for the youngsters have been popular, and two authors had book-signings: Kathy Patrick of Jefferson for her entertaining work, The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, BookSharing Guide to Life, and Dub Mowery’s Colloquial Phrases and Sayings.

And no matter if the library does have computer terminals that many patrons use to connect to the Internet, an outstanding genealogical collection, audio and visual materials, many magazine subscriptions and more—books are still the heart of it.

As Poet Dickinson, wrote, metaphorically making the book a vessel for travel:

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll . . .

For the library’s web page, with its history and other data, see http://www.youseemore.com/upshur/. (Alas, if you Google up Upshur County Public Library, the first page of websites will refer you to the library in Buckhannon, W.V.)

FOR READERS suffering from a true addiction to books, there is no better Christmas present.

I have already received one such present early, and I will get to it as soon as I finish reading Willie Nelson: an Epic Life, a biography by Joe Nick Patoski. I bought it in Jefferson at the aforementioned Kathy Parker’s Beauty and the Book store, when she had an autographing party for Patoski.

Love him or leave him alone, Willie is a Texas original, I am convinced by this book. Though he tried several times to fit into the Nashville scene, the pull of Texas was always too strong.

Patoski even credits Willie with some of the 46 percent growth the Austin metro area experienced between 1970 and 1980. (Some of us UT-exes who remember the small city Austin was before then still find it hard to believe that the metro area has now passed one million residents.)

WILLIE NELSON was born a performer and that is all, apparently, that really interests him. That’s why he was able to smile and shrug his way through an argument with the Internal Revenue Service about $17 million in back taxes that nearly cost him everything before it was ended in 1993.

And what but the love of an audience could have moved Willie to take part in Stephen Colbert’s Christmas special on Comedy Central TV channel last week.

Colbert was hiding out in a mountain cabin decorated for the holidays, afraid to go outside because of a lurking bear. The manger scene on a shelf suddenly came to life and one of the three Wise Men (thanks to the wonders of trick photography) was Willie Nelson, appropriately costumed.

Willie sang a song about being one of the Magi, but one who had no frankinsense, gold or myrrh to bring the Christ child. What he did bring was not exactly spelled out, at least not for me, but suddenly smoke began arising from the manger scene and miniature police cars pulled up on each side.

FOR THE TRULY addicted book buyer, being crowded out of living space can become a problem.

In the Nov. 20 New York Times Book Review, this was expressed eloquently in an essasy by Laura Miller, staff writer for Salon.

She wrote that although she follows a rigorous “one book in, one book out” policy, she found things had gotten out of hand when she contracted to have her apartment repainted. She pulled every book off its crowded shelf and asked herself whether she really wanted it.

Ms. Miller concluded that there are two general schools of thought on which books to keep: The first “views the bookshelf as a self-portrait, a reflection of the owner’s intellect, imagination, taste and accomplishments.”

THE SECOND sees a book collection “less as a testimony to the past than as a repository for the future; it’s where you put books you intend to read.”

I suppose I follow the second view. I have stacks of unread or unfinished books, mainly biographies. Among them are a new biography of Lyndon B. Johnson by Randall B. Woods, an Arkansas professor; and books on the late Gov. John B. Connally, writer Pearl Buck and the composer Kurt Weill.

Then there is an assortment of other fiction and nonfiction that I have bought, or been given, but not yet read. I may have something in common with Laura Miller, who summed up her failing quest to get rid of books:

“I have turned out to be less rational about this than I thought, and have made my library into a charm against mortality. As long as I have a few unread books beckoning to me from across the room, I tell myself I can always find a little more time.”

sgreene@tatertv.com Sarah Greene Archives