A couple of weeks ago, while waiting to meet up with Thom to see The Two Towers at the Uptown, I checked out a cute little shop across the street called Wake Up, Little Suzie. They have lots of quirky, retro stuff, including a few things from Knock Knock. I especially like the Personal Library Kit. As a kid, I used to play “library.” (If you know me personally, perhaps you’re not surprised.) In the front pages of each of my books I placed a punchcard–my mom would bring them home from work; by then IBM punchcards were slowly dying out as a business technology, if not already obsolete, but what did I know, I was a kid, and they were cool–and I’d write on them the date the books were “due.” I bet I still have my collection of assorted rubber stamps, somewhere here in my old desk. I also still have a vague, unrealized goal of cataloguing all my books. Hm, someday.
Knock Knock’s report cards–let your friends and lovers know if they make the grade!–are a hoot too. No, I cannot believe I just called something a “hoot.” Maybe I need their slang flashcards.
3 replies on “Little librarian”
I’m–well, not ashamed, but possibly baffled–to admit that I once had that little library fetish myself. I had a very cool stamper, a big heavy machine that created serial numbers: each time you stamped with it, the big handle pushed down and the number advanced. There was something very satisfying about the KACHUNK of that stamper.
I was discussing this entry with my co-workers today and admitting my own childhood infatuation with libraries and the stuff thereof (I also had a date stamper and had created a card catalog for my books); two of them, including our current staff librarian, had had the same interest when they were children. The latter also told us about the coffee table book she received for Christmas this year,
The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World.
And there’s the Library Hotel (which, as one might guess, has a library theme) in New York City. I must stay there at least once in my life.