America’s Most Beautiful Libraries
A Refuge from the World
I love libraries and spent a great deal of time in them as a child and young scholar; As a child, the library was a refuge from my turbulent home life; as a scholar, the library was my home; it’s where I lived and breathed day and night. A gateway to knowledge, libraries connect people to a world of ideas, events, histories, events, people. For me, a library is a place of discovery, where my curiosity flourishes and runs wild through a labyrinth of ideas sweeping me away to an unexplored destination. For my soul, a library is a place of reverence. I think Jorge Luis Borges, says it best:
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.
Here are just a few of my favorite libraries.
Hoose Library of Philosophy
Located on the University of Southern California campus and a City of Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument, I spent my undergraduate years inside the walnut bookshelves, cathedral ceilings, and stained glass windows. I am partial to this library and remember looking up at mosaic plaques depicting great philosophers with an inscription…