Well worth the fines
I am a library junkie. I can't stay away from it. I mean, we all pay this thing called "county taxes," part of which goes directly into the local library funds.....so why not milk it for all it's worth!?
Living in Columbia for almost two years, I became incessantly spoiled by the very vast array of choices available to me at the downtown Richland County Public Library. Their DVD checkout collection was about as good as any locally owned video rental store. Their CDs were the kind of music Ken and I flocked to.....especially their well-stocked jazz section. I won't even begin to talk about their children's department. Let's just say that a huge, 3-D mural and cutouts of "Where the Wild Things Are" invited you inside. If I would have had Gardner back then, we would've been there every afternoon.
Alas, we moved away from this enchanted library, complete with every cookbook imaginable (literally....why buy them?). I still have my RCPL card in my wallet, in hopes that I might go back one day to check out just one more lovely book. I think it'd be well worth the postage required to mail it back three weeks later.
Though my *much* smaller town's library is, well, smaller, it still holds a plethora of good books. I am the type who must have both a fiction and a non-fiction book at all times, of course that I am working through simultaneously. The cookbook shelves are familiar with my face and fingertips, as are the children's shelves as I peruse them bi-weekly to find new and colorful books to read to Gardner.
I am one who takes advantage of their online catalog, as well, so that I can browse from home, write down call numbers, and simply waltz in and pick up my chosen books, walking out minutes later. Works well with a busy schedule, and a figity infant to boot. :) Plus, libraries are places in which I cannot stay longer than about 30 minutes. I don't know if it's the cool air, a drop in air pressure that is calculated, or just the quietness.....but I am groggy and sleepy like never before. (Happens when I sit down to get my hair cut, too. Hm. Guess that's why I am always trying to keep moving.)
So visit your local library. It's not just for students in a mad frenzy to get references for that term paper due yesterday. Nor is it just for 70-year-old ladies who frequent the romance section (large-print). It's an untapped resource....a architectural monument to the simple fact that none of us need to ever stop learning, no matter how old we are.
Living in Columbia for almost two years, I became incessantly spoiled by the very vast array of choices available to me at the downtown Richland County Public Library. Their DVD checkout collection was about as good as any locally owned video rental store. Their CDs were the kind of music Ken and I flocked to.....especially their well-stocked jazz section. I won't even begin to talk about their children's department. Let's just say that a huge, 3-D mural and cutouts of "Where the Wild Things Are" invited you inside. If I would have had Gardner back then, we would've been there every afternoon.
Alas, we moved away from this enchanted library, complete with every cookbook imaginable (literally....why buy them?). I still have my RCPL card in my wallet, in hopes that I might go back one day to check out just one more lovely book. I think it'd be well worth the postage required to mail it back three weeks later.
Though my *much* smaller town's library is, well, smaller, it still holds a plethora of good books. I am the type who must have both a fiction and a non-fiction book at all times, of course that I am working through simultaneously. The cookbook shelves are familiar with my face and fingertips, as are the children's shelves as I peruse them bi-weekly to find new and colorful books to read to Gardner.
I am one who takes advantage of their online catalog, as well, so that I can browse from home, write down call numbers, and simply waltz in and pick up my chosen books, walking out minutes later. Works well with a busy schedule, and a figity infant to boot. :) Plus, libraries are places in which I cannot stay longer than about 30 minutes. I don't know if it's the cool air, a drop in air pressure that is calculated, or just the quietness.....but I am groggy and sleepy like never before. (Happens when I sit down to get my hair cut, too. Hm. Guess that's why I am always trying to keep moving.)
So visit your local library. It's not just for students in a mad frenzy to get references for that term paper due yesterday. Nor is it just for 70-year-old ladies who frequent the romance section (large-print). It's an untapped resource....a architectural monument to the simple fact that none of us need to ever stop learning, no matter how old we are.
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