libraries

[marycatelli]

How lovely libraries are.

They let you save on both shelf-space and money.  They let you check out books that you're not sure you want to buy.  They let you research lots and lots of stuff.

And they help keep your TBR pile lower because they will, in due course, be due back, and you may or may not eyeball them wondering whether you should renew them, but even if you do, you may decide -- nah.  This can be wise when you overdose on an era for researching purposes.

OTOH, the reading/writing trade-off looks harder when you know that you will take back the books in a few weeks.

Comments

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

When you have a kid who is as voracious a reader as mine is, libraries are a godsend. She gets excited about libraries the way other kids get about video arcades. I was the same way as a child, and I LOVE that she's a reader too. :-D

[marycatelli]

Oh, yeah -- ideally with the library in walking or bicycling distance, but even without that. . . .

I started writing because my parents made me return all books and get out no new ones because we wouldn't return by the time they were due. I was going into written word deprivation.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

Due to budget cuts, our library has a huge collection of children's paperbacks that are on the "honor system". Rivka is addicted to The Magic Treehouse series at the moment, and there's like a bazillion of them. The books are all clearly labeled with bright yellow stickers, and you just bring them back when you're done, or risk angering the Library Gods, who will send you bad juju for abusing the system. We take it very seriously around here.

[marycatelli]

that's one way to get vacation books

[alphien.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, libraries are the most amazing thing ever. Instead of walking into a bookstore full of shiny, perfect books, there are first editions, out of print books, anthologies that the average bookstore won't carry. The list goes on.

Definitely a fan of the library.

[marycatelli]

Books you can't find elsewhere. . . .

[rai-ryu.livejournal.com]

My library is renovating right now...I'm worried they'll turn the cozy reference section into some metal-shelfed thing.
For some reason I keep forgetting there is a library. Then buying books, becoming poor...and realizing I could have just borrowed them. How foolish I am!

Every spring my library has a sale on books that haven't been taken out for a while. Great prices, so it's kind of the best of both worlds.

[marycatelli]

Though it can be sad to realize that no one else will ever discover those books in that library.

[john-j-enright.livejournal.com]

I love libraries. On my average work day, I spend 40 minutes of my lunch in the library, reading... almost anything.

[marycatelli]

how lovely. . .

[jennygordon.livejournal.com]

I used to go to the library every Saturday when I was a kid. Shamefully, over the *mumble mumble* years since, that changed. But last summer, I re-joined my local library, and rediscovered the love.

[marycatelli]

There's something about the way jobs cut into reading time.