My husband, Jack made a recent blog entry on his blog, jackbergstrom.com, regarding libraries and prompted me to do this entry.

This is one of the things Jack and I have in common- our love of libraries, and reading, and books.  Though, not necessarily the same books or subject matter.  I have read at least a thousand romance novels, at least half of them historical romances— Bodice Rippers as he called them, while Jack does not even want to be in the same room as one of them. He is such a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and reads a lot of other books of that fantasy genre. I, on the other hand, have no patience for such books.  We both, however,  enjoy Stephen King, John Grisham and self-help books. And we both agree that we will have a “library” of our own with row upon rown of bookshelves someday.

Unfortunately, there are no public libraries here in Manila like the public libraries in the United States and Canada— where a resident, after securing a library card can borrow 20-30 books at a time for 3 weeks and where one can find the latest bestseller as well as be able to research whatever subject under the sun for free.  Schools, colleges and universities have their own libraries that are only accessible by students currently enrolled- must have a valid I.D. to be able to enter these places. I was lucky to have attended the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Q.C. which had a whole building for its main library. I would spend free periods, scouring its microfiche facilities for subjects that took my fancy, take out books by D.H. Lawrence, Arthur Conan Doyle, to name a few.

The Philippines do have a Public Library system and the National Library is in the heart of downtown Manila.  Before I say anything else about it or write about it from articles that I googled— I’m going to pay a visit sometime this week and blog about it.  Why not? I’m here in Manila and it would be a good learning experience.