Patti Smith on a visit to the library – an extract from ‘Year of the Monkey’

In her latest book, Year of the Monkey, Patti Smith recounts one of her earliest memories of visiting the local library. She writes of “the importance of a library to a nine-year-old bookworm living in a rural community in southern New Jersey”. She speaks of how much reading has always meant to her and describes a library visit on a particularly gloomy Saturday:

“One late-autumn morning, despite the menacing clouds, I bundled up and walked as always, past the peach orchards, the pig farm and the skating rink to the fork in the road that led to our sole library. The sight of so many books never failed to excite me, rows and rows of books with multicoloured spines. I’d spent an inordinate amount of time choosing my stack of books that day, with the sky growing more ominous. At first, I wasn’t worried as I had long legs and was a pretty fast walker, but then it became apparent that there was no way I was going to beat the impending storm, It grew colder, the winds picked up, followed by heavy rains, then pelting hail. I slid the books under my coat to protect them, I had a long way to go; I stepped in puddles and could feel the icy water permeate my ankle socks. When I finally reached home my mother shook her head with sympathetic exasperation, prepared a hot bath and made me go to bed. I came down with bronchitis and missed several days of school. But it had been worth it, for I had my books, among them The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, Half Magic and A Dog of Flanders. Wonderful books that I read over and over, only accessible to me through our library.”

We can’t wait to welcome you back to your local branch. Until then, practice ‘shelf-care’ and read, read, read.