I spent the Memorial Day weekend at home with my dad in Ithaca. Oh, the delight of eating at all my old favorite places (I still can't find a burrito better than the Super Basic at Viva Taqueria), and going to graduation parties (the grad is going to Hawaii for "Teach for America"!).I adore my home town and it was nice how little had changed--and any changes I did see were for the better.
The best surprise was realizing it was the final weekend of our "Friends of the Library" book sale! I love, love the book sale.
On the final weekend, books are dirt cheap. This was both good and bad, only because I know how desperately our library needs money and in buying five books, I only spent 95 cents. But I did snag my very own first edition of Laura Kinsale's FLOWERS FROM THE STORM!
Anyway, this all got me thinking about how much I love libraries, and how important they were to my childhood. At the rate I read, I would have bankrupted my parents if they'd had to buy every book. I once took out the entire bottom shelf (19 books!) of Nancy Drew.
Without books, I wouldn't have won Pizza Hut's "Book It!" Challenge every year--a prize I enjoyed more for the holographic pin than the pizza. My local public libraries were a vital part of my childhood and a large part of what turned me into such an active book-buyer as I grew up.
What are your favorite library memories? What do libraries mean to you and/or you family?
8 Comments:
Esi, we truly are cut from the same cloth! LOL, I grew up on a farm out in the country and for me, Saturday trips into town were exciting because I could go to the library. Nancy Drew books were inhaled. In fact the first one I ever read, was The Secret of Shadow Ranch. I chose it because of the horse on the cover. sigh....I still enjoy my library but it's not the same as the one I used to go to when I was small! Glad to see you had a wonderful long weekend!
12:45 PM
Oh, I do love the Ithaca Library booksale. I was also there this past weekend and spent a total of $5.30 on an armful of books. For a quarter per paperback, I indulge in authors and titles that I would normally pass by.
As for my home library, I'm there almost every week. There's something about wandering through the stacks, not knowing what you'll find. It's a relatively small library, but it's part of a regional system so the online catalog is my good friend. And, yes, I do support the library... mostly through overdue fines.
8:38 PM
My fondest library memory was when I checked out Wifey by Judy Blume and the librarian never even batted an eyelash. I was 13 at the time.
8:49 PM
You all do a librarian's heart good! Thanks for the library love.
9:23 AM
@Erika: Oh, I definitely had librarians like that. They are the best.
Speaking of librarian love, check out Library Love Fest: harperlibrary.typepad.com
12:08 PM
Hey Esi! Oh, how I LOVE Flowers From the Storm. Ah - makes me sigh just to think of it! And my best library memories are that I was fortunate enough to work at my local library one summer after high school and I ADORED just being there with all those books. I did a lot of work on the summer reading program for kids that year and also did some projects in the library's genealogy section, which started a lifelong love of genealogy for me, too.
4:17 PM
Anna Campbell has been converting me to historicals, and Flowers from the Storm was at the top of her list. It's in my TBR pile now but I haven't gotten to it yet.
I LIVED in libraries when I was young because I come from a big family and there wasn't money for books. When we first moved to Elk Grove Village, Illinois, the library was in a model house for awhile. I was about eight years old when I first visited, and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I loaded up with Nancy Drew books, and started a reading habit that has continued to grow with each passing year. (Hence the dangerously large TBR pile.)
10:28 AM
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5:27 AM
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