I was fourteen years old and obsessed with Kurt Cobain. His song, “Heart-Shaped Box,” inspired me to dump my Valentine candy into a bag and use the empty heart-shaped box for safekeeping. Shiny red, about the size of a dinner plate, it was perfect for love notes, by which I mean literally notes of “Things I Love.”

As a teenager, I kept my eye out for lovely things, jotting them down on scrap paper to store in my heart-shaped box. A kid skipping up the sidewalk at the beginning of the school day. The underwater kiss scene in Romeo and Juliet. The end of art class when we cleaned our paintbrushes, colors swirling down the sink. 

I try to think of that box often, to be on the lookout for (more) things to love. It’s not hard when you work at a library – the fiction stacks, poetry collections, movies, CDs and soundtracks are chock-full of things to love. Films like This Beautiful Fantastic, The Photograph, Only Lovers Left Alive. Sufjan Stevens’ song, “The Mystery of Love”, featured in Call Me by Your Name, is so full of love you will weep. If it’s aching love you’re after, Jane Campion’s understated romantic drama, Bright Star, will surely deliver. I personally like to linger over those perfect last lines of Nicole Krauss’ The History of Love: "He fell in love. It was his life." 

Come by and ask us what we’ve fallen in love with lately. We have plenty of recommendations.