It rarely happens, at least in my experience. There is too much noise from the books. Maybe we are a little embarrassed to be trying to talk in profundities with Shakespeare on the other side of the shelf. Some libraries have the spirit of a good bookstore. They treat reading not just as resource but as a hiking trip on a beautiful fall day.
Great libraries can go beyond bookstores.
I am thinking of one of my favorites, New York City Public Library the main branch on 5th Avenue. The building itself is a piece of art, and sitting down with a book at one of the oak reading tables makes you feel as if you are joining a silent movement, pledging not to get up until you can walk outside clearer about your purpose in life. Good bookstores and good libraries have the world s best ideas under one roof. And also some of its worst. Our job as readers is to separate the sheep from the goats, and as we do we become the voices of mute artists, giving their ideas a kind of eternity through our own actions and our own art, because we believe in those ideas too.