I’m not shy about demonstrating my ignorance, and so I will. Again.

After a friend canceled a rendezvous, I decided to spend a few hours at the main branch of the San Francisco public library. I hadn’t been in the library in almost a decade. It’s not a coincidence that was the time that the Internet pretty much obviated my need to go there.

I used to feel at home in libraries, but today the aisles of books seemed distant, even as I was walking through them. I suppose I’ve been spoiled by a decade of accessing millions of volumes over the Internet. And so, I sat on a comfortable couch in the middle of hundreds of thousands of books, and took advantage of the library’s wireless Internet access to read stories on my personal computer.

Regardless of the myriad ways of accessing words and ideas, the San Francisco library still offers one of the finest public toilets in the city; the Internet will never replace that convenience.

Read more of David Rinehart (and look at his pretty pictures) at Stare.com