The season is changing here in Evanston; orange leaves fluttering to the ground, darkness coming earlier and earlier, and cooler temperatures in the forecast. I’m all ready – I’ve got my cozy couch, my secret stash of snacks, and my ever-present stack of books.
Okay – so my ‘secret stash’ of snacks isn’t really secret because I’m the only one here. But when I was a girl, my Grandma had a secret stash of cookies and soda in a bedroom closet, and I was in on the secret. So now, I think of it as carrying on family tradition, you know? My crunchy bites, chocolate nibbles, and fruit-punch juice-box horde are officially the secret stash.
Enough with the silly, let’s get serious. Here it is: If you don’t have a library card, you need one right now.
One would think that since I love reading so much that I’d have already earned my library hermit badge decades ago. Only somehow I’ve always had an inexhaustible pile of books in my house, from here and there. So I just never rolled into the library. Well, one of my neighbors is always ‘off to the library’. And I actually began to feel a little embarrassed of myself. “Yea, I LOVE books…but I haven’t seen the inside of a public library since High School.” Looking away bashfully and blushing.
So, I dragged myself up my library steps a few months ago on a mission to get my library card. If I at least had that library card then I could call myself a proper…I don’t know…bookworm. I just needed the card.
But then I had what one can only call a religious literary experience. I never left the library. Nope. I’ve been living in the library for two months now…
I wish! My word, how I LOVE THAT LIBRARY! I now sprint up the library steps just to longingly peruse the isles, read back covers, and hide from the chaos by disappearing into the nebulous depths of the stacks. I’m reading books as fast as I can, but I’m no speed reader. Which means I can’t read ALL-THE-BOOKS-ALL-AT-ONCE. Because if I could pick a super-human power, it would probably be that.
I guess it’s just the access to so much knowledge. And it feels so real, beautiful, and precious in ways that are hard to describe. So many words, histories, stories, thoughts, feelings, experiences, data, research, LIFE, at my fingertips. And then there are all the incredible ways that libraries are caring for our communities (go to your local library website and check it out). Libraries are truly beacons of light. I only wish that I had lifted them up sooner.
Most of you were already way ahead of me. I know. You’ve had your library card forever and ever. Blush. But for those of you who haven’t discovered the library yet, just know that treasure awaits you. Not just in books. But in community too.
Lift your library. Read books. Stay Inspired.
Inspired By Venice 
I have not had a library card for some twenty-five years now. I had one as a child and practically wore it out – I was so frequent a visitor to my hometown library, that I ended up getting a job there around the time I started college. There are books on their shelves where I’m the only person to have ever checked them out.
And like you, I loved being in that place – it was both dangerous and safe, given what I was reading – as well as a shelter from much of the outside world’s negativity.
But two things happened as I got older: I ended up checking out a book while in grad school and due to some mix-up, I kept it a few weeks longer than intended. They hit me with an outrageous fine – $45 – as punishment. Given that I’d been the first person to check that book out in nearly a decade, that seemed a tad egregious; it wasn’t like there was a high demand for it. So, I returned the book, but never returned to the library. I don’t know what happened to the fine.
Then, after I moved to another city, I went to get a card, but their rules were such that it seemed as if they didn’t want anyone to check out a book at all. I tend to buy my books, anyway, and I’d say that a significant percentage of my income supports that addiction. I do, however, support my campus’ library, so that’s been fun.
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Something that makes me particularly awed is the variety. Not just the popular books of today that are the focus in book stores (though the library has those too). And I can read the covers and flip through the books. (Online, I wouldn’t have ever even organically stumbled on some of these titles, let alone been able to sample enough to know if it is a book I want to purchase). Also, I like that I can check out and read just a chapter or two and return the book, without financial commitment (say, if several chapters are about a particular topic I wanted to explore). I’m feeling more freedom to explore more books!
Thank you for your library stories! Happy Sunday ~
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