Library Loot: November 29

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

I've been venturing back to my local public library for the past few weeks, and enjoying just browsing through the stacks. I have been ignoring the new books completely and have been checking out some of the more forlorn, forgotten books buried deeper in the stacks. And I have to admit, I have found some real gems that I did not know my library had -- one of which I renewed this week to keep reading it.

But first, I want to give a huge shout-out to my public library, which I think is one of the nicest for the size town I live in: the Hattiesburg Library (more properly known as the Library of Hattiesburg, Petal, and Forrest County). It's an architecturally imposing yet beautiful building, and the interior is spacious and full of light. It's one of the most inviting libraries I have ever been in, and their collection is very good as well. They even have a sizeable collection of ebooks for loan, although I have never yet been able to make them work with my iPad. Here's some pictures I hope you will enjoy:

Not the most wonderful picture, because I was afraid of looking like a tourist, but I think it shows the fantastic architecture of the building.

A better picture of the building from the outside, taken from Flickr.

A shot of the interior, taken from what is actually the third floor (you enter the building on the second floor). You can see how open and light-filled the space is. And there's a huge wraparound mural that you can see part of at the top of the picture, which depicts some of the history of Hattiesburg and this region.

A close-up of part of the mural, depicting the tremendous influence the railroads and the lumber industry had on the development of Hattiesburg.

So enough about the library, you may be saying. What about the Library Loot??

Renewed:

The Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison (Jay at Bibliophilopolis clued me into the existence of this book, and I think I am going to have to eventually break down and buy my own copy).

Newly checked out today:

New Stories from the South, 1986, edited by Shannon Ravenel

The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir, by Ken Harmon (I discovered this book in the stacks several weeks ago but I made myself wait to check it out closer to Christmas -- it looks really good and I can't wait to read it!)

The Worst Noel: Hellish Holiday Tales (Ditto about waiting to check this one out as well)

So that's my Library Loot! Lots of reading ahead (and especially since I have a NEW reading project that I will be posting about tomorrow)!