There are a lot of positive aspects to what’s been going on in Lower Manhattan courtesy of the Occupy Wall Street movement but there is one part in particular that brings me plenty of joy. It is the makeshift library that has sprung up to provide protestors with some reading material.
Quite a few people have been camping out, some since it all began on September 17, so it is great to see that they have the ability to feed their mind while they participate in the occupation.
Titles include, from what I can make out, Orwell’s Animal Farm, a biography of Emma Goldman, Nick Hornby’s Housekeeping vs. Dirt, a collection of his bookish pieces from The Believer, and a copy of Democracy in America by De Tocqueville among many others.
I am hoping that there is a librarian amongst them who can catalog the entire contents of the library so that it can be used as a starting point for similar events in the future and of course, simply for the historical record.
I would also love to know what exactly are “The Library Needs” listed in the above photo so we can get to work filling them.
UPDATE
9/29 Alexia Nadar has a piece on The New Yorker blog The Book Bench about the Occupy Wall Street library and its origins including a chat with the “appointed caretaker” of the library.