No, not mine – the book Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventures, by Noah Adams of National Public Radio. He spoke last Saturday night at the venerable Mercantile Library in downtown Cincinnati. He, for a pretty much unknown reason, decided at 51 to take piano lessons, and chronicled the adventure.
I, to celebrate my 60th birthday in 2000, bought a friend’s piano and found a teacher, just because I had never had music lessons and it was time! Jeremy, two years later, moved to Boulder to get his doctorate in piano, and I’ve seldom played since – though I’ve got the books of Irish music sitting out on the piano, just in case.
But that’s another story. This story is about the Mercantile and Noah Adams. I bought two friends and I memberships in the Mercantile for Christmas, and had managed to get to a program in the Meeting Room on the 12th floor. But had never, all these years in Cincinnati, been in the 11th floor actual Library itself. Just breathing in was a delight, not to mention the ancient busts, the old glass cases, the comfortable chairs. All that a library should be. Aaaahhhh.
Noah Adams was funny and wonderful and smart. I liked the people there, bought his book, and he signed it for me. But the real star of the evening was simply the library itself.
I expect to be hanging out there a lot!