Sunday Serenity #363

Library of Congress Reading Room

This is an ongoing series from my Bucket List of things I desperately want to do before I loose the rest of my vision.

Library of Congress Great Hall

My Bucket List

#5 Visit the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Dome

This has been a decades long dream of mine.  And like the Shakespeare & Co Bookshop featured last week, a simple touristy afternoon visit is not enough.  I want to spend at least a couple weeks nearby returning every day to thoroughly explore and do real research.

Also I'd have lists of works by authors I'm trying to read everything in their oeuvre which I'm having trouble getting my hands on.  Whether books published in their early career (out of print or just banished from public library shelves to make room for the new) or short pieces like poems, essays, articles, lectures, letters or short stories never included in a collection.

A few on that list:

Joyce Carol Oates
Flannery O'Connor
Maya Angelou
Doris Lessing
Toni Morrison
Alice Munro
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Drabble
Louise Erdrich
Barbara Kingsolver
Isabelle Allende
Marina Warner
Amy Tan

Stephen King
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Robert Olen Butler
John Irving
John Gardner
John Barth
John Fowles
Orhan Pamuk
Philip Roth
Ray Bradbury
Charles de Lint
James Joyce
Joseph Campbell

That's just off the cuff and there are many more.  Especially in the category 'deceased but not yet in the public domain'.  So of course I could not hope to cover everything for all of them but a selective list of items I'm most anxious to see would set my priorities.

A companion dream is to visit each of the libraries holding the papers of the authors on my list.  Another over ambitious aspiration.  Especially if I ever want to finish my own WIP.

Library of Congress Alcoves

My Bucket List

#1 Hot Air Balloon Ride
#2 Play on a real drum set
#3 Swim with dolphins
#4 Visit Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop in Paris