Buried

...under the huge pile of books I picked up at the library yesterday. When we lived in Minnesota, I'd reserve books at the library all the time. They'd trickle in at a rate of one every week or every two weeks, which was pretty much perfect for me. Last week I reserved seven books at our town library, and when I went to the library on Monday I checked at the desk to see if any were waiting for me. I was expecting one or two, but I got all seven. So now I'm furiously trying to get through them. Since we can only have them out for two weeks at a time here (instead of four weeks in Minnesota) I'm pretty sure that even I, speed reader that I am, won't be able to get through all seven, especially since at least two of them look to be in the 700-800 page range.

And while I'm on the subject of the library, I'm just gonna say that I think that even more than good roads and convenient mass transit, I'm glad that our government provides us with public libraries. I like the library so much (and in particular the ability to reserve books online and pick them up at my leisure instead of trying to search for them with loud kids in tow) that I really don't see the need to buy books. I mean, I do buy books, but unless it's something I'm going to use over and over (like a cookbook) or a children's book (a weakness, I'll admit) or a book club book with a long reserve list or a textbook of some kind, I just don't see the point of buying something I could read for free. I'd say that my general rule of thumb is that a paperback book should be read at least three times (rule doesn't apply to books bought to read on vacation, which are in a different category entirely). So if I can hand off a book I bought for full price at Barnes and Noble on to a friend, it alleviates my white liberal guilt a little bit. If I buy a book for $1.00 at half.com and then let a friend borrow it, that's even better.

And while we're on the subject of books, the first meeting of our new book club is tomorrow night. Guess who is in charge? I've already received tons of emails from potential members, voicing their potential concerns and potential problems, so I'll have to let you know after the meeting if it was really as painful as I'm anticipating it might be.

--originally published 1/31/06