I Love Books
Public libraries have been around for a long time. When I was younger, I lived for trips to the library. I was mom's little reader. I got so many free personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut for BOOK IT!, that it's truly a miracle my childhood nickname wasn't Big'un.
I still remember the day I was standing in the Junior section of the Bedford County Library and realized I had read pretty much every book in there that seemed exciting and age appropriate. Keep in mind, the Junior section of the library at the time was in a small house next to the tiny main branch building, and the books that were age appropriate for me (i.e. not, see-Spot-run level) were crammed into a few bookcases in what might have once been some little old lady's spare room. That's when I finally convinced my mother that it was silly of her not to let me check out books from the adult fiction section.
And what was the first book I checked out from the adult fiction section? Beast, by Peter Benchely. It was exciting and full of generic suspense and intrigue. There were splashes of sexual tension and descriptions of gory death by giant squid. And it was long! I remember being so proud of reading that entire thing in a weekend. Of course, it was a library edition, which means the print is generally larger. But still.
So it seemed odd to me today, when I was standing in my local public library, listening but not listening to the guy run through the list of all the awesome things I could do and check out with my brand-spanking new library card, that I hadn't checked a book out for pleasure reading from a library in nearly ten years. I mean, during my undergrad days, I would go to the library and study and write papers, and sometimes I would have to check out a book for class, but that was rare. If there was something I wanted to read for pleasure, I just bought it. I like owning books. I have a lot of them. It makes me happy.
But I also like public libraries. They're fantastic institutions that fulfill a need in our society. As I was standing in the long line with my first three books, I felt like I was part of something, and I was excited to see so many people capitalizing on the opportunity to read and expand their mind, if only just a little.
Of course, that was until I noticed that 90% of the people in front of me were checking out DVDs. And I'm not talking about great documentaries or some fabulous Discovery series on caves. No, they were checking movies like Hitch and The Wedding Singer. The nice older lady in front of me had Brokeback Mountain, so I complimented her on her choice. She then told me that her son had recommended it and that she had been meaning to see if for quite some time. She added that her son was 32 and living alone in Staunton, was between jobs but picking up some part-time work at some restaurant as a host, that the food there wasn't that good, that he had dropped out of college but was thinking of going back to finish his degree, had always been interested in engineering but she thought he should be a lawyer because he was so good at arguing (insert polite laugh here), and had recently hurt his foot when he missed a step carrying a box up from her basement. If we both hadn't gotten to check-out right about that point in the story, I'm pretty sure she was going to try and set me up with her son. I just had that feeling.
Anyway, there were a few kids with huge stacks of books, so at least some of our youth are getting use out of the library.
If any of the books I checked out are good, I'll let you know. Here's hoping.
I still remember the day I was standing in the Junior section of the Bedford County Library and realized I had read pretty much every book in there that seemed exciting and age appropriate. Keep in mind, the Junior section of the library at the time was in a small house next to the tiny main branch building, and the books that were age appropriate for me (i.e. not, see-Spot-run level) were crammed into a few bookcases in what might have once been some little old lady's spare room. That's when I finally convinced my mother that it was silly of her not to let me check out books from the adult fiction section.
And what was the first book I checked out from the adult fiction section? Beast, by Peter Benchely. It was exciting and full of generic suspense and intrigue. There were splashes of sexual tension and descriptions of gory death by giant squid. And it was long! I remember being so proud of reading that entire thing in a weekend. Of course, it was a library edition, which means the print is generally larger. But still.
So it seemed odd to me today, when I was standing in my local public library, listening but not listening to the guy run through the list of all the awesome things I could do and check out with my brand-spanking new library card, that I hadn't checked a book out for pleasure reading from a library in nearly ten years. I mean, during my undergrad days, I would go to the library and study and write papers, and sometimes I would have to check out a book for class, but that was rare. If there was something I wanted to read for pleasure, I just bought it. I like owning books. I have a lot of them. It makes me happy.
But I also like public libraries. They're fantastic institutions that fulfill a need in our society. As I was standing in the long line with my first three books, I felt like I was part of something, and I was excited to see so many people capitalizing on the opportunity to read and expand their mind, if only just a little.
Of course, that was until I noticed that 90% of the people in front of me were checking out DVDs. And I'm not talking about great documentaries or some fabulous Discovery series on caves. No, they were checking movies like Hitch and The Wedding Singer. The nice older lady in front of me had Brokeback Mountain, so I complimented her on her choice. She then told me that her son had recommended it and that she had been meaning to see if for quite some time. She added that her son was 32 and living alone in Staunton, was between jobs but picking up some part-time work at some restaurant as a host, that the food there wasn't that good, that he had dropped out of college but was thinking of going back to finish his degree, had always been interested in engineering but she thought he should be a lawyer because he was so good at arguing (insert polite laugh here), and had recently hurt his foot when he missed a step carrying a box up from her basement. If we both hadn't gotten to check-out right about that point in the story, I'm pretty sure she was going to try and set me up with her son. I just had that feeling.
Anyway, there were a few kids with huge stacks of books, so at least some of our youth are getting use out of the library.
If any of the books I checked out are good, I'll let you know. Here's hoping.