My intense love affair with the Providence Athenæum started about two years ago. Like anyone who enters this library for the first time, I became imbued with a sense of great warmth and comfort. Amid its creaking floors and hidden corners is a place that seems to envelope you in books in a way that is immensely satisfying. After my first visit here, I promised myself (and the library) that I would return. I started rushing to the train station after school to get to Providence and the Athenæum as quickly as possible. Each visit I would pick a new spot to study, whether at the desks on the second floor over looking the entrance, the hidden window seats, or under the Christmas lights strung in the basement area. When in Providence with friends, stops at the Athenæum became mandatory. I would pridefully lead them around, showing off my favorite corners as
if I had built the book shelves myself. Each time I fell more deeply in love with this building, and to this day it is my favorite library to return to time and time again. The Providence Athenæum became the inspiration for this blog with the belief that if a place as lovely as this exists to hold books, surely there must be other libraries tucked in small neighborhoods or grand buildings that are just as magical as this one. The Providence Athenæum has unintentionally become the root of this blog from which I hope to explore many more buildings filled with books holding as much warmth and beauty as the Providence Athenæum.
