The old library's gone now

 When I was a teen I didn't exactly have the happiest home life. As a result, and being an insatiable reader, I spent as much time as I could at the Noble County Library. It was only about a four block walk from our house, and from the library's front windows was a great view of the Noble County Courthouse. It was very much my home away from home for several years.

It's gone now.

Well, the building is gone. The library moved in 1995, to a place that's a lot easier to navigate for both patrons and employees. About 35 years ago a member of the Library Board took me to the basement of the oldest part of the old library, and showed me cracks spreading through the concrete. He told me the original library was designed to have shelves around the exterior walls, with a central circulation desk. Now, with shelves all across the rooms, it held more weight then it was designed for.

Not to mention it was too small, and laid out in three different levels. When the library moved, the Noble County Prosecutor's Office took up the space, but to me it will always be a library. Well, would. Now I have a brick.

I spent hours going through old books and microfilms there, researching our book Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department. Then I returned the favor, putting the library itself into Images of America: Albion and Noble County. Between them, I fed both my reading habit and my writing ambitions with volume after volume from the place.

In the photo above you can see the original structure in back, and the 1968 addition in front. The original, built in 1917, was thanks to a $10,000 Carnegie Foundation grant--Andrew Carnegie's money built a lot of early libraries.

In the photo below, which I got from the Old Jail Museum--on the same block--is the Carnegie Library before the addition went up.

In elementary school my favorite part of the week was when the bookmobile showed up and we would file through, picking out something to read. The bookmobile also came from the Noble County Public Library, which had a garage built on the back to house it.

Just for the heck of it here's one of the bookmobiles, in a photo given to me by Ellen McBride. This one, I assume, was before my time--I recall the one we went to being more like a large van.

 Anyway, the Noble County Library is still operating with three branches, and going strong. The original is being replaced by a Noble County Government building. I can't deny the practicality of most government offices being centralized into two buildings, with the resulting savings in utilities, upkeep, and communications. I might even end up working there myself, if my writing career doesn't allow me to retire by then.

But I'm gonna miss what was there.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 

Book signing results and photos

Thanks to everyone at the Noble County Public Library who made us feel at home in the main branch, in Albion. We had a great time! Some friends stopped to visit, and we sold close to two dozen books.

Now--get this--we're going to do the whole thing all over again. Yep, we'll be appearing December 10th at the Noble Art Gallery, also in Albion (at 100 E. Main Street). Details to follow, naturally, but they're the only place where you can regularly buy all of our books, so please support the gallery and all its wonderful art.

And ... we'll have something for you to see when we appear. A surprise. *evil laugh* Now, library photos:

Here's the table Emily set up. It was a great location!

Here's a look at the inside of the library. It gives you a warm feeling during the day, although when night falls it seems a little dark. (I mean, even with the lights on.)

Plus a great view through that big window!

Here's Emily's iPad photo of how everything looked after she set it up! All I had to do was sit there and look pretty. I mean, handsome.

You in other countries, you have an excuse

I’ll see you all tomorrow (Wednesday) at the library in Albion, 3-7 p.m.! I mean, except for a few of you who are excused. You, you … yeah, okay, you. But for everyone else, it’s not just a book signing, it’s an author appearance—in other words, you can stop by without buying.

Even if you don’t buy a book or two, you can probably pry out of me the big announcement I made earlier this week in the newsletter. I mean, unless you get the newsletter, in which case you already know, and asking would be silly.

Bury Me At the Library (Not literally, that would be weird.)

     One of the reasons why so many adults are miserable is because we so often give up what
we like to do, in favor of what we think we should do.

It’s why I don’t make fun of most hobbies, as long as they’re not damaging property or people. As the old saying goes, give a man a fish and he eats once; teach a man to fish and he’s out of your hair for hours. You want to paint your face and scream your lungs out at a football game? Go for it. You want to dress up as a wizard and play a board game? I don’t see how that’s any sillier than painting your face, and at least you’re indoors.

What I loved to do was go to the library. All those books! Rows and rows of shelves and shelves, each filled with dozens of new worlds to explore. No matter how I pictured my life in the future, I knew I’d someday have a library all my own—an entire room with nothing but books.

Well, I’m halfway there: I have enough books to stock a room, but unfortunately they’re spread out in stacks and boxes all over the house. Someday.

I guess that’s expected, of a writer. What I didn’t expect was getting so busy doing adult things that I stopped going to the library. On a related subject, nobody warned me that being a writer would eat into my reading. There are those days—days when I get still another rejection letter, or a list of edits, or a lonely book signing—when I think I could give up writing, in order to get more reading time.

Then I’d be back at the library, for sure.

When I was a teenager the Noble County Public Library’s main branch was on the courthouse square, just a few blocks from where I lived. The back part was a Carnegie Library, one of those buildings funded decades ago by a rich guy who saw a need and helped fill it. The front part was newer, but featured big picture windows where someone could sit and look out over the courthouse. That’s where the magazines and newspapers were, and I read a lot of those.

I had to, once I ran through every book.

A person can read at home, as I usually do these days. But there’s something about a library. The smell of books, the look of them, especially the old ones. The feeling that you’re with others who might also love books, or at least appreciate them. There were microfilms full of history, plus atlases, huge dictionaries, encyclopedias pre-internet. Oh, and records—those vinyl disk things, you remember.

When I moved out on my own, one of my few belongings was a record player the size of a console TV. (A console TV, it was … oh, never mind. It was huge.) I’d take home some classical music records (and a stack of books), and play them while writing stories on my old manual typewriter. (A manual typewriter? … get your grandmother to explain.)

I’d probably still be a reader if there were no libraries—my parents saw to that—but I’m not sure I would have ever become a writer.

It might seem a little strange that I’m having a book signing this Wednesday at that same library, in its new location. I mean, that’s where you go to get your books for free, right? And there I am, trying to sell some. But I figure, that’s where the book lovers go. Besides, I owe all libraries, especially this one, and maybe this is my chance to pay them back a little, with some publicity and even a few walk-ins who wouldn’t be there otherwise. Or, maybe the library is just helping me again.

But either way, I get to spend a few hours there. And with all our adult responsibilities these days, it’s nice to go somewhere we want to be.

A pressing release for the book signing

Here's a look at the press release I sent out for next Wednesday's author appearance; feel free to send it to your own newspaper, radio station, or TV station, and by your own I mean if you own it, I'm free for interviews. If you own several, I'm free for syndication. And if you run a blog that features writers, I'm just free. The books aren't free ... but they're cheap, just like me.

 

A husband and wife writing team are coming to the Noble County Public Library’s main branch in Albion this November, to help introduce their newest book.

Mark R. Hunter and Emily Hunter will be at the library in Albion Wednesday, November 16, from 3-7 p.m. They spent almost two years roaming Indiana to produce Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving at All. Written to celebrate Indiana’s bicentennial, the tongue-in-cheek book pokes fun at Hoosier History and trivia.

Although Mark did most of the writing and got his name on the cover, he insists his wife did most of the work: Emily designed the cover, formatted and edited the book, traveled around the state with him on research missions, then edited and added photos they took along the way.

Despite all the research, the Hunters say the book is mainly for fun or, as they put it in the forward, “So sit back and learn something fun about history. When you’re done, read this book.”

The pair previously collaborated on two local history books: Images of America: Albion and Noble County, and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department. They also put together a collection of Mark’s humor columns, Slightly Off the Mark. Mark is also a humor columnist and the author of three novels: Storm Chaser, The Notorious Ian Grant, and The No-Campfire Girls, as well as the story collection Storm Chaser Shorts. All of their printed works will be available at the appearance.

Hoosier Hysterical and all the Hunters’ books can be found at http://markrhunter.com/, and on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO.

Mark R Hunter can be reached by e-mail at markrichardhunter@gmail.com.

 He can also be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter/, and on Twitter at @MarkRHunter