I went to Butchart Gardens, and yes the Pacific Northwest is a lush green beautiful place and the gardens will be beautiful if you have never been to the Northwest before, but I found Butchart Gardens paled in comparison to some of the rest of the natural scenery in the Northwest, it felt kind of "artificial" by comparison. The gardens are also overpriced. The weather in that area tends to be gloomily overcast much of the time, so for the best experience you might prefer to go in the summer, and allow yourself enough time in the area to be able to see the gardens on a good day.

I do think that libraries should cater to a wide variety of tastes. The problem comes with one person deciding what the other people should read.Exactly -- one person, or the committees (boards) that are interested only in the bottom line. The problem is many public libraries in the US are catering to very narrow taste, and I think that's what most of us are really complaining about. Now, whether this is because the preponderance of the clientele only want certain types of books, or the space and budget restraints are inhibiting the purchase of a broad collection...I'm not sure, but I suspect it's both. It's very disheartening to me, though, to see choice shrinking rather than expanding in public libraries. I have nothing against sci-fi/fantasy being well represented for readers who love it. I do object to mediocre and poorly written sci-fi/fantasy crowding out other genres, though. (I certainly can't tell, though, what is good and what is bad in the genre because I don't read enough of it, but I've been told very frequently by several family members who love the genre that about 70% of it is crap. I'll take their word for it because among them they have almost 150 years of reading experience, a lot of it in sf/fantasy, and even they see their beloved genre is over-represented -- and debased because of it.) There comes a point when a significant portion of the clientele is not being served well because the most popular genres are hogging everything, and those people will get discouraged and turn away; perhaps some potential readers will be lost because the library doesn't have much of anything they need or have an interest in. The libraries have already lost me, but I don't count because I have other resources -- it's those who don't have alternatives I feel the saddest for.

I'm lucky -- an abundance of libraries within easy driving distance. The smallest branch library is in a nice "town square"-type community (stores, restaurants, movie theater, small grocery store, arts theater, and a dog park/strolling park across the street). But when you walk in, the first thing you see is desk after desk of computers. People can sign up for computer time, and those seats are always filled. There's also WiFi, so others come to the library for "office" work. That's great -- not everybody can afford his or her own computer. But the layout just seems to push books to the periphery, and that kind of saddens me. This is the library I usually stop at on my way to work to pick up my "holds." And the libraries in that county (which is just 15 minutes or so away) have deep CD and DVD collections. A library a bit closer to home is a slightly more "warm" place -- there are plenty of computer desks, but when you walk in, there are many book displays (how many times have I picked up interesting books there before I remembered the titles I MEANT to look for? Too many!). The librarians do a great job on their book displays. And because there are two really big used-book sales a year, there is enough revenue from those, and from the county, to also have many shelves of "just released" books. CD/DVD collections, not so much. And then there's the library in the next community over, where I used to live. It was designed by the architect Michael Graves, and I was really interested in seeing it. I walked in, and I actually felt cold. A lot of glass, soaring roof line. But there were so many shelves that looked half-filled. I couldn't decide whether they were just still pulling things out of storage, or whether they'd spent so much money on the redesign that they were short of book funds! Haven't been there recently, but I trust that everything's out of storage by now. But I have to admit that even tho I realize I have a wealth of library options, none of them stacks up against my memories of my favorite library -- the one I grew up with, in Connecticut. Picture your quaint New England buildings -- that was it. Small, but it always had what I needed for school projects; the card catalogs; beautiful heavy Windsor-type chairs -- just a wonderful atmosphere for researching and finding something new every time. My dad and I went there together frequently. So for me, it's not just the building and the materials -- the best library has to "envelop" me somehow, with friendliness and warmth.

Oh I know, just being pedantic :) And its thundering as we speak, so it will probably rain. Of course, I did just get my car washed so it figures. Just hope it does so before I have to get my kids off the bus. We have a bit of a walk from that curb to the classroom.... Our regular school librarian has been in and out of the hospital for cancer the last few years. She hasn't started back at school yet, but there's a sub. I was chatting with her and my god what is she doing in the library? She retired 10 years ago, says she wasn't planning to do this more than a week, and that there is more to life then work (true, but then why did she do this?) Heard from one of the kindergarten teachers that she's a drill sargent. Great - we want to teach children the joys of libraries, and this witch is gonna spoil it all.