Book Blogger Hop: Our Library Journeys

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. What role have libraries played in your reading journey? Do you have any recommendations for books or fond recollections involving libraries?

First off—Library Card Sign-Up month? I didn’t know that was a thing—glad I got to do something to commemorate it.

What role have libraries played in my reading journey? That’s sort of like…man, I don’t know, I should be able to come up with a snappy metaphor. Maybe by the time I’m done with this.

As far as I recall, I didn’t really use a Public Library until I was at least semi-literate—maybe it was after I was reading things at the Fun with Dick and Jane level. I have one or two very vague memories of that first library (mostly chaotic) before my family moved across the state.

I’ve repeatedly told the story about when my family and I realized how important reading was to my young brain—once we settled into our new town, it wasn’t long before I got a card—and boy howdy, did I use that thing. We didn’t buy a lot of books then (that got underway when I discovered used bookstores and thrift shops in junior high…but that’s a story for another time), so the public library—with a little supplementing from various school libraries—was how I got my reading material. I visited at least monthly, I think bi-weekly was the norm, although there were summers I walked there daily.

The librarians got to know me pretty well—as well as my shy/timid near-pathologically introverted self would allow, at least they got to know my reading habits. Looking back on it, I know it was small—I may have known it then. It certainly didn’t get a lot of new books—particularly in the “Juvenile” sections (except for the very Juvenile books). That selection probably led to my love of re-reading. I knew where my friends were found on the Fiction and Non-Fiction shelves, and visited them often. But I enjoyed the variety it did have—especially when I could start reading the things in the non-Juvenile section. I honestly don’t know if my being unable to go there was a parental rule, a library rule that I aged out of, or just an impression that I had that no one corrected. But Ian Fleming, Erle Stanley Gardner, Eric Van Lustbader—and soon Robert B. Parker, Rex Stout, and Mickey Spillane—were waiting for me to discover.

In high school, we moved to a larger town—the library was bigger, and the collections were, too—I was able to read a new-to-me book or two from authors I loved that I hadn’t been able to find in my old library and I was able to find some new friends, too. The catch was that we lived outside of city limits, so my parents had to pay for my library card to make up for the taxes we didn’t pay. What a relief it was (for my conscience) the next year when I got a job there, so I got that fee waived.

Obviously, I was in hog heaven working there—and it exposed me to so many new authors, new topics, new…everything. Reshelving returned books helped me see what people were consistently reading, and eventually, I’d get curious, too. Or putting one boring-looking book back next to something else would get me to pick up the something else. Dave Barry Slept Here is one that I distinctly remember coming from that. That’s also how I learned that C.S. Lewis wrote things other than the Chronicles of Narnia, I’m inexplicably embarrassed to note.

Other than the University library, I pretty much stopped using them for a decade or so after High School. I wasn’t going to pay for a card just to use over the summer months as I scrambled to save up money for the next year—also, I was buying enough by then that I could keep myself in books when I found/made time to read things that weren’t for class.

Fast-forward to the time when my older kids could write their own name—which was the library’s standard for getting their own card. I’d let them browse for something that’d catch their eye, and while they were doing that…I’d go browse myself. This got me experimenting more about what I was reading—oh, also, this library was bigger yet than the last one—and kept growing. That experimenting—plus my reading priorities shifting and freeing up—led to me reading more and more, and…well, here we are.

I read my first Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Benedict Jacka, Faith Hunter, Patricia Briggs, Seanan McGuire, Lee Child, Rainbow Rowell, David Rosenfelt, Rick Riordan, Mick Herron, and Ian Rankin because of that most recent one. I could go on and on, but I just thought I’d pick a few names that show up time and time again here. I don’t browse the stacks too much anymore, I have lists of books I want to get—and usually place requests via the website. But I’m still using that library regularly, and my not having at least two books checked out from there at a time is strange (I have two on my desk now and two waiting for me to pick up as I write this).

Really, I wouldn’t read what I do now if I hadn’t read something in the library that sparked me to look for more like it—or encouraged me to move far away. Which would lead to/from something else, and something else, and something else for 4+ decades now. And I hope that continues for decades more.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the “do you have any recommendations for books…involving libraries” part of the prompt—I covered that in my Books about Books and the People Who Love Them post last month (along with a few other things).

Are your stories about libraries sound similar? Or have you had a different experience with them?