Libraries

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I just wanted to write a quick entry in response to slugmax's post [1]

on genuine physical libraries. Growing up in Australia the 80s, I can

definitely relate to the joy of solo visits to the local library. It

was a bit further for me, requiring a half-hour bike ride, and the

last few hundred metres were often a bit hairy in magpie nesting

season (I almost stacked it a few times as a result of being startled

by beaks and claws attacking my helmet) but it was always worth it!

I spent heaps of my time trawling the shelves looking for my next read

(I was/is a fairly avid science fiction reader), and it was through

this library that I encountered role-playing games. They had a few

guides on how to plan and host "fantasy role playing" or FRP games (as

I remember one of the books calling them), and although I borrowed

oodles of these books I could never convince anyone I knew to give it

a go. Luckily the library also stocked a dizzying array of game

books. (I still remember the name of the first one I read: "Gardens

of Madness". Others included the "Lone Wolf" series.) These were

books that were essentially single-player role-playing games. If

you're thinking "choose your own adventure (tm)", think again: these

books involved character creation, keeping track of health, inventory

etc., and required dice (or some other randomness generator) to play.

The sheer number of possibilities the authors managed to pack into a

novel-length book was incredible!

Another couple of anecdotes that might amuse younger gophers:

1. As our family were lucky enough to own our own computer fairly

early on, I enjoyed borrowing books containing BASIC program

listings. Taking these home and entering these into the computer by

hand (and of course having to make some minor adjustments along the

way, since the programs were inevitably targeted at BBC Micro BASIC,

Apple BASIC or some other variety of BASIC slightly different to

whatever I was using (GWBASIC?). I remember the strange combination of

satisfaction at getting the program actually running and

disappointment from the fact that the output never looked anything

like the stylized illustrations that accompanied the listing. :-)

2. I remember borrowing (multiple times?) a copy of "The Internet

Yellow Pages" (or something along those lines). This was exactly what

it sounds like: a fairly complete listing of all of the interesting

things there are to find on the Internet. We didn't even have

internet access at that time, but I can still remember basically

reading every entry with amazement. (It's hard to explain how magical

the idea of the big-I Internet was to somebody who'd never used an

online system - computers were a distinctly off-line activity for me

back then!)

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[1]: gopher://republic.circumlunar.space/0/~slugmax/phlog/2019-08-17-library-nostalgia