i come from a long line of buyers. why cook if you can buy? why rent a movie if you can buy it? why take a book out of the library….i mean, seriously, there’s a barnes and noble right over there…and, Ali, don’t be ridiculous, you can’t get coffee at the library…
i am slightly ashamed to admit that i hadn’t stepped foot into a public library until i was 15, a sophomore in high school, and was doing research for my term paper, which was on the jfk assassination theories. by golly, i’m so freakin’ american. (are there really that many s’s in that word??). these were the days before internet research could be done. we had to do things the hard way. actually sifting through old newspaper articles…you couldn’t just go online.
that was pretty much it. the library and i didn’t even spend enough time together to become friends. once i got to college, everything was online and i didn’t need to leave my computer for research. it was amazing, really. what useful tools i had, right at my fingertips.
this year, i discovered this amazing place they call the library and now i understand why the lot is ALWAYS full and i can never find a spot. the place is freakin’ great! books, cds, dvds. i can order them online and pick them up at my convenience. i can renew them online. it’s amazing!
truth be told, i’m still a buyer. if there’s a book i want to read, i buy it. and then i read it and it sits there on the shelf until one of my friends takes it off my hands. it’s silly, when you think of it this way (but…the reason for this is two-fold. a) as i said before, i come from a long line of buyers and b) i’m in publishing…and i truly believe in the importance of buying into the book world. if people stop buying books…i’ll be out of a job). my use of the library was mostly limited to taking out books for work. research, if you will. i’m there almost every day, taking out a stack of potential read-aloud books for my grade 4 program.
but recently, i discovered that it’s so much more than just for work. i took out "love in the time of cholera". i fought the urge to buy it, i took it out, i read it over a week, and returned it. it truly was a thing of beauty. yesterday, i took out the cd "free to be you and me" i’ve been trying to download it for ages and haven’t been able to find it. i loved that record (yes, record) as a kid and wanted my kids to hear it. but i didn’t really want to buy it. so, i took it out. copied it, and will return it. beauty! did you know they even have magazines?
i can’t believe it took me almost 29 years to discover the library. please don’t let me let this happen to my kids. friends don’t let friends ignore the library.
song of the day: Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2. one of the best. ever.
video of the day: George W. Bush singing the same song. it’s pretty funny, actually.
come and see me at Cheaper than therapy. i’ve got another killer line from my son….
Ali, yet again you have inspired me – I have been more regularly going to the library with the kids anyway, but I decided to check the “online” facilities and whadja know???? I can search, order and reserve books too!!!! Makes it so much easier than reserving them manually at the library itself.
So far I have 13 DVD’s, CD’s & books in the pipeline – and that doesn’t count the stuff I have on hold for the kids!!!
…and, you read Love in the Time of Cholera in one week!!! Wow! Kudos!
I’m a Chapters/Indigo girl all the way…. The trains, the kitchens the decor, the STARBUCKS….Beats the smell of old books any day…. 😉
hi ali,so thats what U2 are singing about.just kidding i love u2,have some good memories connected to them.george was really a rockin it .that was funny.i love the library.haven’t been since preggers with baby.have to re-new card.any how used to go at least once a week to get books out for me and children.now my teenage son has to get me books.but he usually only comes home with cookbooks and none of the other stuff i ask him to get.
jen – i think you can.
we should actually do something urbanmoms…a book trade!! everyone brings old books and we can exchange! and donate all teh rest to the library!
I LOVED Free to Be You and Me! “When I grow up will I be pretty? Will you be big and strong? Will I wear dresses that show off my knees? Will you wear trousers twice as long? Well I don’t care if I’m pretty at all. And I don’t care if you never grow tall. I like what I look like and you’re nice small so we don’t have to change at all.” LOVE IT! Have the CD for my kids.
I’m like you…a buyer. Especially when it comes to books. Once read, they just sit there. I am actually thinking about donating them to the library…can you do this?
I work in publishing, too, but I am in love with the library. Mostly because i get paid very little and therefore cannot afford to be buying as many books as I read. But, holy crap, at the library? They let you read them for FREE! You don’t even have to pay for the library card! I just discovered this a few months ago and I still can hardly believe how wonderful it is. And if I read a library book that is so stinkin’ good that I know I’ll want to re-read it, then I buy it. Thank goodness for the library.