Coffee, from Kefa Cafe in Silver Spring. It was a blend that included coffee beans from Brazil and Sumatra, but to my unpracticed palate what dominated was the taste and texture of Ethiopian coffee. A quick search finds that “winey and fruity” are common words used to describe it, and I thought I could taste a bit of sourness too. Add a little more water and it’s almost like tea.

Kefa Cafe shut down last year due to a fire, and they heroically reopened just a few weeks ago. In the meantime, they had opened a new coffee stand at the bottom floor of the new Silver Spring library. And while the library does have coffee, it doesn’t really seem to have a lot of physical books. The building is made up of a lot of open spaces and big windows, and they have the capacity to at least double the number of books on their shelves, but they don’t. Probably, they assume that most people will download something to read on a screen and use the library as a place to study or have meetings. There are plenty of kids books, however: The entire top floor is devoted to them. If there’s anyone who still reads hardcover books, it’s little kids, and I wonder if the new generation is going to think of printed books in much the same way they remember kitchen playsets and dollhouses. You know, the toy versions of the real thing.

(Photo: Spanish edition of How to Enjoy Your Wine by Hugh Johnson.)

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