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During the commemoration of its 130th anniversary, Lanier Library is celebrating members in

this monthly column. These profiles will help the community get a better idea of the neighbors who

carry the Lanier card and are helping preserve a cultural tradition started in 1890.

 

“Our family membership number is 1610,” says Laura Peek without having to think about it. Her daughter, Meredith, a home-schooling 8^th grader, quickly adds with a note of pride, “I also got my own card in 2018. I don’t think I would have read some of the books I love without the many here.” Daughter Elizabeth, home-schooling kindergartener, chimes in, “I learned how to read last summer and I got “Poisonous Frogs” from the Library right now.”

 

Each have their favorite rooms in the Library but all three like the Felburn Nature and Wildlife Collection. Elizabeth particularly likes the frogs, dinosaurs and butterflies downstairs, but also notes the M&M dispenser upstairs on the card catalog. Meredith is fond of the young adults section, favoring the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan and the wide selection of audio books. She listens when beading at home. Laura says, “I like the common room with the new releases, the people and chats. I actually got to chat with my favorite author, Ron Rash, at a program and was star-struck.”

 

Laura moved from the Asheville area about 10 years ago. “I was walking around Tryon and discovered Lanier by chance. Browsing around the rooms I felt that this was a place that had been loved for generations. I wanted my family to be part of it.” Meredith’s earliest memory of coming with her mom was being amazed at how books went on and on, aisle after aisle. Laura continues, “I came here regularly here with Elizabeth while pregnant with her. As a toddler she liked to visit the little stone girl that’s in front of the fireplace.

 

“With books in every room of our home, Lanier is a literary second home for us.”

 

Submitted by Vincent Verrecchio