The singing mobile lending library

For the past 25 years or so I've been singing in a classical choir. It's changed hands quite a few times and now it is called "Kolot haNegev Choir" and is based in Beersheva.


One of the "perks" that emerged during the years is that the trip to the choir has become my mobile English lending library. The couple who pick me up and take me home are both English and live on Kibbutz Alumim which is near my Kibbutz, and they they are my main book suppliers.

I get my book package in the car - if it's light outside I avidly go through the package to see if I haven't already read the books, and if it's dark, well, then I have to wait until I get home to see what delicacies I've received.

Since I rarely get to the city, we have a sort of "lending library" going on between us and I get books from them whenever I ask. This means, however, that I don't get to pick up the book, read the cover, decide if I like it or not and want to buy it. It means that if I want to read, I read the books they give me - and many times these are books that I would never ever have considered reading!

It was difficult for me at the beginning to get used to this, but I've found that I am a much richer person for it, and that my reading habits have changed over the years because of this. It's a lot like getting presents for your birthday. You know you're going to get a present but you don't know what it is. For me, every book package is like a birthday present. I dig in and wonder what I'm going to get this time.

I'm always amazed when I finish a particularly good book and think - "if I had to choose that book I would never have even picked it up". I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the books I returned saying I couldn't read them. Some, I might put aside for a while and read later, or start, stop and then return to the book. But for the most part I read everything they give me, and I take my hat off to them for the "mitsva" they're doing and because of their good taste in books!


The choir pictured above is the Kolot HaNegev Choir under the baton of Esther Abramson - this was photographed during a performance at the Felicia Blumenthal Hall in Tel Aviv. Yonit Young is the photographer.