Sunday in the 'arts' library

$15 per hour for a meeting room in the Esplanade library. That's not too bad, really, if you want to compare with other places, but yeah, I guess Yan has a point that it's not very encouraging for the arts to have a charge like that. But this is Singapore, we're pragmatic people. That room mightn't necessarily have been for the 'arts'.

Arts library indeed. They didn't have ANY Christopher Durang plays there! Got there on Wednesday night to find out that all the Durang plays are in the Marine Parade library. Then pray why tout this one as the arts library if they ain't got a comprehensive collection? Folks, it's OKAY to have duplicate copies in different libraries, ya know??

Was not entirely surprised to have only Joe and Kennie show up for today's gathering at the library. Two last-minute pull-outs and no response from anyone else....we're off to a good start, aren't we? But we made some good progress I think. Spent most of the time reading snippets of the plays we dragged out of the shelves. Very promising, some, but others inspire the phrase "What the...?!". Like Agamenon, which is actually an adaptation of Poe's immortal House of Usher story. I don't know about the others, but I'm not too sure I'm keen on learning lines that come mostly in stanzas.... Then there are some other plays that seem to comprise entirely of a series of monologues. And no, they were not classical Greek ones.

Hard to pick a suitable play. Can't be too male; can't be too female; can't be too abstract; can't be too comedic; can't be too dated. Such a series of 'can'ts'. This week's exploration of the theatre shelves has shown me that, for every brilliant work of playwriting, there's a horde of seriously crappy stuff.

Browsing the music scores section was lovely, though. Even if I couldn't find the score for South Pacific (was looking for the score for that ridiculous shampoo song). Seeing the shelves of classical scores brought back memories of my college days when I used to spend hours rifling through the collection at the Stamford Road library, picking out works that look promising to try out on my Albert (my beloved piano), and then having to reluctantly eliminate some from the inevitably large pile that ends up in my to-borrow list. I doubt I ever played half of those I borrowed, though. Still was always nice making my way to the library on my own. I still like that, though the opportunity comes by far less often these days.

I don't like libraries. I don't like borrowing. I prefer owning, collecting, so I prefer bookshops. But my pockets don't run so deep, so borrowing will have to suffice till I earn my first million and fund my own private library. (uh huh.) I like to be able to read something, put it away somewhere on my shelves, and come back to it again sometime when its spine catches my eye again. Even if I don't read it again, I like the thought that I can. Compulsive consumerism? Perhaps. But the value I attach to a book I own is something that can never apply to a borrowed book that I read and doesn't seem to stay with me. The contents of the book just seem to be more a part of me when I own the book. Same reason why I hate e-books - the feeling that I can't own it, that it's not real enough for me. I'm always so hungry for books, always looking for that next work of art, be it an astronomy reference, a social dissertion, graphic novel, an irresistable coffee table book, a piece of fiction. Bookshops are death traps for my wallet.