Introducing the SSUC Library’s collection

Ever dream of living in a penthouse suite, perhaps atop the Stantec Tower, Edmonton’s tallest building? Or maybe you‘d wish to call an Irish castle “home”, or a manor house in the English countryside. What about a glass-fronted chalet overlooking the Big Sur coast, or a log lodge-home below the pinnacles in Teton County, Wyoming, the richest county in America? 

But living in a library—now that’s a notion that never crossed your mind, right? We’re not talking about working 9 to 5 in such a place, as a librarian; or visiting one to borrow a book—we all do that. No, we mean eating three meals every day in one, bedding down for the night, doing all your morning ablutions there—living in one, 24/7. 

Just think, there’d be books all around, all the time. Like the print version of “surround sound”. Why, you could curl up on the coach each night with a different one, or do so in bed. Crack the covers, and read the opening sentence: does it grab you? Can you not put it down? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” No? Maybe, instead, “Call me Ishmael.” Hey, here’s one no church-goer, such as yourself, could neglect: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”

Once upon a time, folks really did live in libraries. As recently as the 1970s and ‘80s. At least in New York City. All thanks to industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. About a century ago, he gave the Big Apple $1.2 million—worth well over $100 million today—to create a city-wide system of libraries. Ever after known as the Carnegie Libraries, these branches of NYC’s public library were heated by coal, so each required a live-in custodian tasked with keeping the fires burning. Typically, they lived on site, these employees, in top-floor apartments, often with their families.  

Once the coal furnaces were upgraded, however, the apartments emptied out, “and the idyll of living in a library has disappeared,” Sarah Laskow reported in a piece for Atlas Obscura, this in October, 2016. Mostly, these spaces have been “absorbed back into the buildings through renovations for more modern uses. Today there are just 13 library apartments left in the New York Public Library system.” 

Mind you, as she added, this after visiting the one in the Fort Washington branch that had not yet been repurposed, “In today’s New York real estate market, this apartment is not unappealing. Yes, it would need cleaning and modernizing before anyone moved in. …But…it’s in a library.” Golly, “walking upstairs in a well-used building, and finding an empty floor, feels like being in on a great secret.”  

Even though living life in a library may be, as Ms. Laskow has it, an “idyll,” we two—we who are your librarian here at SSUC—are not suggesting that you countenance us moving lock, stock, and barrel into our church’s Library & Lounge…though it is an inviting space, and not used incessantly, and we could sleep late on Sunday mornings and still be in church on time. No. We simply want to draw your attention to this space and what you’ll find there: works that seekers in particular should find soul-satisfying. Drop in…once the pandemic eases its grip…and see for yourself. 

The collection—of about 700 books, of ideas—explores religion, church, spirituality, theology, faith, doubt, values, beliefs, Jesus, God and gods, and all such things. These are writings to be pored over and pondered, weighed and wondered about. And valued. 

The classics are present and accounted for, everything from The Confessions of St. Augustine to Martin Buber’s I and Thou. There are works written by such luminaries as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Northrop Frye, Abraham Heschel, Albert Schweitzer, Paul Tillich, and Simone Weil. Others will acquaint you with such great church figures as John Wesley and Hildegard of Bingen. There are plays—The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel, and Lucas Hnath’s The Christians. Progressive Christianity pioneers like Jack Spong and Lloyd Geering penned still other of the volumes. Consider Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God, but also Richard Dawkins’ refutation in The God Delusion.

On the shelves you’ll come upon the Iona Abbey Worship Book, Bible atlases, an eco-foods guide, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, self-help books, including lots on loss and grieving by the likes of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, even Nancy Steeves’ doctoral thesis. There’s fiction, too: challenge yourself and read Nikos Kazantzakis’ controversial The Last Temptation of Christ, and Putting Away Childish Things, the novel that, as one reviewer put it, “flows out of Marcus Borg’s life.” There are books about the Earth Charter, LGBTQ concerns, the Dead Sea Scrolls, fundamentalism, myths and mythology, bullying, preaching, sexism, the labyrinth, mid-life crises, evolution, Christmas, human rights and humanism, feminist theology, Buddha, Islam, justice, the parables, prayer, Christian ethics, Celtic wisdom, parenting, sin, eternal life, shamanism. Whoa, catch you breath.

Discover The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot; read how Jesus became Christian, and also God; see why No Man is an Island; explore The World of Anne Frank; join in The Battle for God, or play Hide and Seek with God, or go along with SSUC’s Clair Woodbury Looking for God; go In Search of Paul; learn how to love nature; spend The Last Week with Jesus; get acquainted with the Middle East; ask, Can We Trust the New Testament?; ask also The Great Questions of Life; meet The Pagan Christ; find faith, peace, the right words, your way home, and your religion. Why, You Can Teach Yourself Philosophy of Religion. And this litany of authors, titles, and topics, only scratches the surface!

Along with handfuls of DVDs and videos, all this is waiting to be browsed and borrowed; what’s not to be circulated are the slim number of reference works. The collection is housed in bookcases in SSUC’s Library & Lounge—it’s the inviting room off the foyer, on the right as you enter the church. Everything has been ordered and shelved, arranged by author, from A (Abbott, Deborah) to Z (Zuckerman, Andrew).

Book-borrowing has been made as easy as can be: you’ll find lists, both by author and title, in a binder atop the first of the bookcases; as well, these can be accessed on the Library’s webpage (ssucedmonton.com/library), so you can pick and choose what you’ll want right from home. Simply sign out the books using the in-and-out form—it’s in the same binder; later on, please be sure to note on the form the date you return the items you’ll have borrowed, and place them in the basket atop the second bookcase. It’s pretty much grab and go!

So, please, get going!

Ellen & Ken Fredrick