# Libraries are depressing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 19, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940 "2005-02-19T21:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/21 "2005-02-20T04:15:42Z")
That used to happen to me all the time when i was younger, but not any more. My idea of Heaven is a library full of 100,000 new Straight Dope books I haven’t read yet. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/22 "2005-02-20T04:31:59Z")
I didn’t find libraries at all depressing until I moved to New York and encountered smeary 25c photocopies, compulsive-slob patrons who apparently leave their pants on in the bathroom to save time, and remarkable rarities in the card catalog that time after time turned up missing. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/23 "2005-02-20T05:44:04Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > You guys have obviously never walked across a couple in the throes of passion amongst the library stacks. Hey, there were times I was part of the couple. 😉 But only in college libraries. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/24 "2005-02-20T06:14:50Z")
> [@Scarface Z](#): > > Am I the only one who borrows movies and audiobooks from the library? Nope. My library is a great place to get audiobooks. Thankfully, they get the unabridged ones. And they’ve got a pretty good collection of non-fiction, too. RE: the OP. I’m subject to clinical depression. My whole family is. So I understand about seeing the dark side of things. But DAMN! Complaining about a library because there’s too much to read? That’s like complaining about getting too much sex. Nobody expects you to read everything or know everything. You cannot possibly do it. However, you can have fun trying. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/25 "2005-02-20T07:14:04Z")
I can kind of see the OP’s point. That’s why I really started reading as much as I can, as fast as I can. I’ve started devouring books like I used to. I want to know all of the good books and read them. I should really frequent the library more, though. I’ve spent so much money on books in the past four weeks. The library at my university is depressing for a whole nother reason. It’s the third largest library in the country (so they say), and it’s so big and imposing and daunting. There are smaller libraries inside of it. I have no idea how to get around or where to start or anything. I really need to take a library orientation class. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/26 "2005-02-20T07:55:34Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Hey, there were times I was part of the couple. 😉 > > But only in college libraries. Doing anything this weekend? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/27 "2005-02-20T09:31:37Z")
Libraries are among my favourite places on Earth. The fact that I’ll never finish discovering stuff I haven’t seen or read is what buzzes me out most of all, I think. Haven’t seen anyone have a bit of a pash between the shelves, though. Must go at the wrong times of the day or somethin’. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/28 "2005-02-20T18:11:17Z")
Libraries are the very opposite of depressing to me-they’re like crack. The first time I went to the main branch of the Carnegie in Oakland I started drooling and walked around in awe for almost an hour. Mmmm…libraries… ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/29 "2005-02-20T18:18:48Z")
Maybe “depressing” is a bit too much hyperbole. Maybe de-motivating would be more accurate? I’ll get in there, find something I want to read, but then I’ll see something else, completely by chance. I’ll think how it looks interesting, and maybe I should read that instead, but there’s this other book over here … on and on. Then I waste too much time trying to figure out what I want to read in the first place. Getting in the library is so impressive, and I get the same feelings about the really old books. Then I think about the stories that go along with the stories in the book. Like who else has checked out the book, why they read it. It’s like I’m in a sensory overload, and then crash when I realize I can’t take it all in. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940/30 "2005-02-20T21:28:39Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Why would you want to read everything? And why do libraries always affect me like a laxative? Here I thought I was the only person in the world that every time I go into a bookstore or library, within minutes I gots to poop. Like NOW! Then a friend and I were at a bookstore and she hurried asked, " Do they have a public bathroom here?" “Yeah, but it is a uni-sex one. One seater. I’ll show you…as I got to go. But you go ahead of me.” “Noooo…you go ahead of me…” “I have to poop.” “Me Tooo!” “Book stores always make me poop.” “Me Tooo!” (I could write dialog for Paris Hilton…) We decided, after each unloading our burdens ( can’t remember who went first) that since we were both bathroom readers the colon/spinctner muscle would be Pavlov’d from all the John Reading Sessions. If I am ever constipated, I go to the library. Who needs exlax? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/libraries-are-depressing/290940.md?page=1)