The moment you open the door you feel as though you've stepped into another world entirely. Every minute detail seems to launch itself at your senses simultaneously, overwhelming you with the complex beauty of it all.
The musty, yet pleasant smell of leather and paper greets your nose, accompanied by the deeper and more powerful scent of ink and wood. You know even before stepping across the threshold that you are standing in a library.
But it isn't just any library- its grandeur and richness go far beyond any comparison you could possibly make. The ceiling is suspended far above your head, held up by majestic, marble pillars that have been carved and sculpted with such beauty that you find it hard to believe that they were made by human hand. The ceiling is so far above your head that you are forced to crane your neck to catch a glimpse of the beautiful artwork above you. One continuous mural covers the vastness of it all, broken only by the beautiful window that is set in the center of the ceiling, allowing a flood of golden sunlight to filter into the room, casting a beautiful rainbow of color on the floor below. Dust motes dance and sparkle in the rays of sunlight, betraying just how old and forgotten this place must be.
The library is composed of two floors, and both are filled from end to end with old mahogany bookshelves that reach from floor to ceiling. The tomes that fill those shelves can only be described as ancient- there are far too many to count and each one looks older than time itself.
As you look around at the beauty that surrounds you, you continue to discover more and more details that seem to bring the room to life before your very eyes; rich carpets, potted plants that have overgrown their enclosures and taken over much of the walls and railings.
There is only one thing missing- life. Despite the vast beauty of the library, you quickly realize that you are the only one here, and the silence is deafening.
(A brief writing exercise I did to practice my descriptive terms. Written in probably about 10 minutes or less. I didn't go back and change anything, so this really is the bare minimum. Picture courtesy of Google search. I couldn't trace it back to the actual artist, but I do not claim it as my own.)
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