Your first…

Do you remember your first library? Mine was in a strip mall, had paperback racks filled with stories. Bean bag chairs to slip into and read to my hearts content.

Then I started going into different areas of the library. Formula racing, I remember pulling those and checking them out. Dreaming of driving fast fast fast. Then it was rally car racing, spurred on by a movie my sister took me to see.

Ohhh, but in fourth or fifth grade the librarian called my mom on me. I was going for “adult” fiction– romances and Sci-Fi and Fantasy. That poor librarian thought when my mom said she’d be right there, I’d be getting a tongue lashing.

Well, someone got chewed out.

It wasn’t me.

When Mom was younger, she was with foster families. She wasn’t allowed anything of her own, and was not allowed to read what she wanted. She told me of taking a copy of an approved book (hardback), and cutting out enough pages that the real book she was reading could slip in. Those idiots probably thought she was a slow reader.

I don’t remember Mom ever going into the library to check out books. Which is odd because she was a voracious reader.  She had floor to ceiling bookcases in the house, my dad built them on the wall just for her. But library books? Not so much.

The library is about more than books now. Maybe it always has been, but I didn’t see it because I wasn’t looking for it when I was younger.  When my son was super small and I was unemployed, I took him for storytime. It was so needed for me, got me out of the house to a place where he would be entertained and it was free. And there were other grownups there going through the same thing.

As he’s grown, he’s gone to the library for crafts and classes on coding and just to look for books. For people without wifi there is access to computers– and for people who need help with them, there are classes. The local library in California had several classes, for adults, teens and kids. Gardening. Taking care of elderly parents. Diabetes control. Coding. So many classes.

The library has become a true community center and it makes my heart hurt that so many are fighting to stay open. And I think of myself, that little library kid loving all the books.

And I’m thankful.

I think I might need to go to my new library tomorrow.  Find out about my new community. I’ve only been once (twice if you count the returning of books lol). Hope you visit yours as well.

Libraries

Who remembers their first library? Not the first visit to a library, but the first library that you claimed as yours. Where you realized that it contained a whole bunch of  books that could and would transport you to other worlds.

My first library was a little neighborhood one. About the size of a smallish 7-11, situated in a strip mall, it was where my love for books blossomed. I didn’t know it at the time, but as my ever ranging interests started casting a wider and wider net, the librarian called my mom.

I was in fourth grade, and checking out adult books.

But oh! Those books! Some were romances (the Harlequin romances of the 70’s were A LOT sweeter than they are now). Some were sci-fi or fantasy. Some were plain old fiction.  I had already devoured A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, all the Little House Books. My brain was wide open, and at this point… my mom could have done something different.

But she opted to let me read what I wanted. It was a different time, back then. There wasn’t quite as much chance of anyone getting an inappropriate book in a public library. And I am sooo thankful.

Books are magical things. They open up windows into new worlds– sometimes doorways into a new life. But there has to be that one place where your imagination catches on fire.

For me, it was in what would become a bakery, sitting on bean bag chairs, reading adult fiction. They closed that particular library a few years later. They made a huge library, a modern one, and closed down all the little neighborhood libraries.

It was never as much fun.

Yes, they had all those books. But I could no longer go at least once a week. I had to be driven over there, I couldn’t walk. And the nice librarian was no where to be found in there… Just a lot of strangers.

I miss the neighborhood libraries. But I have to admit, I do love the large stacks of books in the main library.

How about you? Where did you fall in love with books?

 

PS– found a great fantasy novel about a librarian who pulls magic out of books, which inspired this post. I’ll review it later in the week. If no one else gets the stomach flu (please please please).