My oldest pal

I was packing all my stuff and I ended up with a cartonful of books. It was an assortment of fiction, classics, jokes and technical books. Some were read many times and some with not even half the pages read.

I wasn't fond of reading books until my eighth or ninth grade. Then I met my oldest pal, The Public Library, Kollam. It was after my twelfth that I got membership at the local public library.

"A big old building at the centre of the town, guarded by the shades of the big trees. I always wondered what an awful place for a library, as it was right next to the railway station. It had a huge collection of books. The reading room used to be sparsely occupied. The ground floor had all the novels and classics. It was always deserted. Many of the racks untouched for years and with dust settled on all the books.
First and Second floor had magazines and technical books. Students aspiring for competitive exams would go up there to refer the latest magazines and current affair books.
Then there was this lobby with all newspapers. Some people throng this place at afternoon, there is no better place than a library to a take a little nap."

It has been a long time since I visited the public library, my oldest pal.