The Long Room, Trinity College Library, Dublin

As a lover of books, I’m also a lover of libraries. From the Ryerson wing of the Grand Rapids Public Library where my love affair with books began in the Children’s Room (to the left just as you pass through the main entrance) to the Englehart Library in Lowell overlooking the Flat River where I visit often now, I have on my loosey-goosey bucket list to visit some of the great libraries of the world. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the library at Alexandria, is tops on this list (and may never happen) as is the library at Trinity College in Dublin. I was thrilled, from the top of my head all the way down to my toes, to be able to visit it when we were in Dublin two years ago.

I wanted the majestic, darkly beautiful library I saw in the all the pictures. I wanted to experience solemnity and sacredness in this cathedral of knowledge. I wanted to stand in this sacred silence and have it to speak to me.

It didn’t happen that way.

Instead Bob and I joined a sea of humanity no doubt seeking the same thing. All of us pressed into the Long Room on a warm Saturday morning in July. We barely had room to inch our way down the hall between the book stacks just close enough to read the names of the busts at the ends of the tall bookcases. The room reverberated with a loud buzz from all the voices. It felt hot and sticky. I was finally standing in the library of my dreams, but I felt kind of empty when I had expected to feel soul—full.

That’s tourism for you. I’ll know better next time.

And in spite of it all, I am still happy I went.