A Trip to the Libray

Alas, one of the things lacking in my life in Korea has been easy and frequent access to the library. I've tried the school library but until recently they had a total of ZERO English books. A month or 3 ago it got a small collection of Korean folk tales translated into English and I've been enjoying them. The one time I went to the public library near my home (after 3 hit and misses trying to find it) I was disappointed to find they had no books in English in the adult section. I did find a few shelves in the Childrens Section of the library but there weren't many and were aimed at small children (vs. young adult/junior fiction which I'm actually quite a fan of). However, last friday I was given the opportunity to go to Yatap and the Seongnam Central Library there (Think, county library). It was GLORIOUS! As far as libraries go it was decent, more aimed at giving students a place to study than a huge collection of books but it had rows and rows of English fiction! Oh, how my heart leapt with joy! I just looked at them, ran my fingers down the rows reading a title here in there for the sheer pleasure of being able to (I can read hangul but slowly and usually don't understand what I read). It seemed to be a lot of novelized movies/tv shows and a lot of fiction aimed for younger readers, but there was also a smattering of classics and a large travel section. One title jumped out at me "When I was called Keoko" by Linda Sue Park. I started reading it. Just sitting and reading while the lovely teacher who brought me continued to browse and eventually headed for the Korean books. For a 40 minutes I read this book, devouring the words, pausing only to move out of the stacks to a table. Imagine my joy and delight when this kind, generous teacher, ready to leave offered to check it out for me, not just the one, but I could choose a second book! I hurried back into the stacks and grabbed a second title that had previously caught my eye. "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. The check out machine baffled me. You put the books on a stack on the surface and it scans them all! Magic rays pierce the paper and find the code for each one. I stood all amazed.
As we were leaving Holly (the kind teacher English name) asked if she could look in another room. Imagine, asking my permission when it was she doing the favor for me! In the Non-Fiction room we were both suprised to find a second English section! My excitement dimmed as I realized that 90% of the books were about computers/programming/the internet. However towards the end there were a smattering of histories and biographies that are worthy of future perusal.
Soon I will get a few small pictures of myself (like you need to get a passport) take them and my foriegner ID card to the library and get a card of my own. Imagine, being able to once again go to the library! To read books for free! It shall be Legen... ...wait for it... ...dary!