My entry for Freehouse Daily Writing Prompt #2070
Again it was quite stressful to know there was a time limit, but I figured it was ok to prepare images and do a little thinking outside of the 5 minutes. Someone please tell me if I'm wrong.
"Enter at Your Peril" it said on a sign above the door. I didn't yet know what peril meant, just having reached L in the dictionary, so I opened the door and entered.
On the other side was a perfectly normal hallway. A rack with coat hangers, some occupied, some not. A threadbare rug leading me onwards into a larger room. To the left was a counter with a young woman sitting behind it. I'd have to pass her to get in. From the right I could hear childish voices. Babbling and bubbling and being as loud as kids usually are when they want to be somewhere else. Straight ahead there were armchairs full of old men, making faces at each other and tschk-ing at every noise.
And everywhere I looked: treasure! More wealth than I could ever imagine needing, and all mine - Mine! - to use or discard as I wanted. If only I passed The Test...
Boldly or shyly - I don't recall - I stepped up to the guardian behind the desk, and challenged her to let me in. She smiled, had me recite the alphabet, then scratch my name onto a yellowish piece of cardboard while she entered the results in her ledger. My very own passport to everything in the world!
Conveniently sorted by topic and author's last name.
Perhaps the sign didn't really say "Enter at Your Peril" but simply "Public Library of Suburb-this-or-that," but it might as well had since I'm still lost among the shelves with no desire to find my way out.
Part of my cookbook collection. Currently sorted by title, sometimes by topic or author.
This is where I should post affiliate links to all the online booksellers? Well, I won't, so there. :P
Let me instead tell you that there is a place called Project Gutenberg which has over 70k public domain books you can download for free. For newer books I recommend Prolificworks where both indie and traditionally published authors often give away their books. And of course, subscribing to your favourite authors' newsletters if they have any.
Checking the time again... adding images, writing the text outside the story, formatting and adding links took almost 30 minutes! 🙄 I hope my entry will still count.