Alice McDermott

 Alice McDermott, "By the Boo", New York Times Book Review,  August 1, 2021, p. 6.

I've also always loved to read in some quiet corner of a university library -- all the books I'll never get to standing by, lending their fragrance to the place.  An occasion I'm sorely missing of late.

...

My father gave me a brand-new hard-cover edition of W.B Yeat's "Collected Poems" when I was in my mid-20's.  I think it must have been the most expensive book he'd ever purchased (he and my mother both were advocates of the public library), and it signaled to me that he had resigned himself to my troubling ambition to write.

COMMENT

The library is a place of refuge, nd a place to share books (and save money).  It represents aspirational future reading.