Otis Library: September’s Literary Voice

By Stephanie Skinner
September 2026

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)

As always, it was a busy summer season here at the Otis Library. As I so often say, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”’ (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

Oh, wait, that was somebody else. Sorry! I get obsessed and make mistakes sometimes. So, go ahead, "Call me Ishmael" (Melville, Moby Dick), if you must.

But it really was a crazy busy summer. Library programming has been growing exponentially here. With sharpened pencils we had been planning for a wide variety of new programs starting in the late spring. I remember well that “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (Orwell, 1984)

Wait. That doesn’t make sense. What I do recall however is that “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind …” (Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford), but that pretty much describes all of the early Otis spring, right?!

Have you visited our little library recently? Have you taken advantage of one or more of the programs, books, or movies we so painstakingly amass for you? Way back in spring we had visions of finding something for everyone to love. And we worked hard to do that. But, as I also say, “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” (Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God)

Oh, dear. I seem to be stuck in the first lines of the masters. Perhaps their wisdom has infiltrated my memory and reset my language protocol? I wonder how this will conclude. “A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” (Greene, The End of the Affair)

Brian Skinner, always learning. Photo by Stephanie Skinner

I hate to say it, but my love of literature may have infected me more than I realized. I wonder if, sometimes, my friends have said to one another of me, “Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.” (Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups)

But who cares! For me, I was raised to love a library; to find insight, guidance, and joy in books. From the day my Dad read to a tiny me “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” (Tolkien, The Hobbit) I scaled mountains, played riddles with bloodthirsty creatures, snuck up on dragons, and eventually stood shoulder to shoulder with the armies at the gates of Mordor. He instilled in me a reverence for stories and what they can do. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I have been turning over in my mind ever since,” (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby); “To choose to stop learning is to choose to die.” (Brian Skinner, In the Life of Stephanie)

Here at your Otis Library we may not be able to serve you a Bud Light, but we can offer you a cup of tea, an open ear, a good story, and a hearty laugh if you are so inclined. If you haven’t been here recently, commit today to roll by the library. Say to yourself, as I so often do, “The past is a different country; they do things differently there.” (Hartley, The Go-Between)