Friday, November 4, 2011: It must be the hope for a chill in the air and the possibility of pinon wood burning that has folks thinking about settling back for the evening with a good book. For many the loss of Borders was unthinkable and rather devastating. But there are other bookstores and you can even seek refuge online.
That’s you. However, there are people who cannot afford a computer or even a book because of living on tight incomes. You scoff? It’s painfully true. Where do they turn? Where do researchers turn for hands-on documents? The Dallas Public Library system. Too often it’s taken for granted and, like many other city-operated departments, has take a major hit in the budget.
That’s why the Friends of the Dallas Public Library’s annual dinner at the Ritz-Carlton is more important than ever.
Oh, you’re thinking it’s going to be stuffy types that like nothing more than the Dewey Decimal system. Wrong! Oh, so wrong!
Now you want proof. All right. This year’s headliner is a local fellow who went to Hillcrest High School, scored 1600 on his SATs, moved on to Yale and then Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
You’re still thinking blue-haired type. The guest-of-honor will be Greg Pak, the son of Jane and Charlie Pak, who has become a film director and comic book writer of the “Incredible Hulk” stories. You can place money on the fact that his talk is not going to be about the finer points of English literature of the 17 century.
Oh, did we mention that he’ll be interviewed by Dallas Observer‘s Big Bob Wilonsky?
The Friends could also use the support. One of them reported, “This has been a dreadful year with the City. Two years ago we had $4M for materials and this year we are at $2.2M . In the meantime, nothing got cheaper! The Friends’ sole existence is to support the Library so we need an extra boost.”
For more information, call Kate at 214.671.8317.