I keep reading the thread and remind myself how lucky I am to have a local library within easy reach.
It is nothing like the one I remember, growing up.
I remember lying about my age (by a year) to get access to the record-library - LPs in those days. Their collection, then, was a lot smaller than my own library now but it opened so many doors. As a natural bookworm, I had already read about the operas of Wagner and Richard Strauss. I could only dream about hearing such excessive, outrageous music!
Suddenly, I could. I was listening to two operas a day at the age of fifteen, such was my hunger! There was some history of music in the family - my grandfather was a choirmaster at the Catholic church. The house we inherited had a pianola and a reed organ. Even so, my grandfather's tastes ended at brass bands and Gilbert & Sullivan. Thanks to the Library, I could thoroughly indulge my taste for the "Highbrow!"
Which reminds me of the first time I heard that horrible, self-limiting word. I was about ten, had two shillings in my pocket and had found an incomplete set of the Sargent 1929 Iolanthe in a junk-shop. Would the dragon behind the counter accept two bob for the lot? Not only did she insist that I brought her the full amount but she sneered that I would not like them anyway, because they were "Highbrow!" I returned, plonked down the additional shilling and marched out on the path to I knew-not-where. It was certainly to a more rewarding place than that shilling took her with my best wishes.