BiblioGeek: James Franco at the Library
As surreal as it may sound, yes the James Franco goes to libraries and in an even more bizarre twist-he films himself doing it then posts it on Twitter. (Yes he is now on Twitter)
James Franco, a pensive reader, author, and former library volunteer Photo via: thefablife.com
Apparently he used to volunteer at the Palo Alto Children’s Library. Two things pop out…
1) He seems like such a quiet and reserved person–more adept at wearing his thinking cap while parsing some obscure and deep text–how did he deal with children?
2) It must have been a very long time ago when he wouldn’t be mauled by dozens if not hundreds of enamoured fans. I’m not sure what the visit is really about but it’s cool that he revisits his past. Maybe he’s filming it so he can set various clips to music life the Beatles’ “In My Life”…Like this one:
Or probably not.
He’s a little to cool and collected for that. His might be more Plastic Ono Band or White Album than than anything else–a performance art video with smatterings of familiarity and connections to what we consider reality.
I don’t doubt that He Who Studies Much suffers from nostalgia like the rest of us, though, and that perhaps this particular library might be kind of special for him.
I don’t presume to know what role the Palo Alto Library played in his life. I did read he grew up in Palo Alto so this may have been his neighborhood library a child. Maybe he was a book worm as a kid and the library was a haven for him like it was for me.
My local library was a huge part of my childhood. I spent hours strolling up and down the corridors of the local library browsing at the seemingly endless shelves of books. Judy Blume, Louise Fitzhugh, and others were my buddies–my old friends. I knew the library so well that near the age of 10 or 11 I got to the point where I would stop asking the librarian to help me because she only confirmed that a) a book I wanted was there or b) a book I wanted was not there. Great times.
What kind of memories do libraries hold for you?
I remember taking my first trip to my local library. It was a field trip that required walking from my middle school as a group and signing up for our first library cards.
One of the most worthwhile things in my life.
I loved reading as a kid, but unfortunately I don’t have many library memories…..very very few. Getting to the library from my house required a car…….and no one was really interested in driving me there. My mom, slightly more neurotic at the time, saw library books as the equivalent of weapons used for biological warfare……”do you have any idea how many people have touched and coughed on those and put them in their bathroom and touched them after having diarrhea??? All the germs will kill you/make you deathly ill!!” No wonder I started lugging purrell everywhere at an early age- my mom used to scare the shit out of me about everything!
So sadly, the library thing was sort of out of the question when I was growing up. I did go to the school library…..so that’s something.
That’s terrible. I didn’t even think of that! Hey at least you got some exposure to books at the school library. I’m curious to know…what is your view on libraries now?
I remember library programs more than actually checking out books (which I also did, of course). My library had a family storytime every Thursday night that was for elementary aged kids, and would usually end with some kind of game that often involved children’s literature trivia. By the time I was in 5th grade I had those lit trivia cards pretty much memorized and, I’m sure, ruined the game for everyone else who showed up. Then I decided if I became a librarian, I could continue to ruin things for kids for years to come.
Thanks for sharing! Haha. I can just imagine 5th grade Patricia sweeping the floor with the other kids and earning the nickname, the Purple Menace for your penchant for purple outfits or something like that… I’m glad that your experiences as a kid encouraged you to become a librarian. So have you started a trivia program at your library, yet or are you lulling the children into a false sense of security?