Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about library books…
Do you have a system for borrowing out books from the library? Do you know what you're going to borrow before you get there? How often do you borrow out books?
I go to the library almost every week--excluding several weeks in December when the holidays just get in the way both in the going, reading, and returning. So probably forty-eight times a year at least--so you could say that I use the library quite a bit!
Sometimes I go with list in hand, jotted down on notepads, index cards, envelopes, etc. Sometimes I even print out a list if I've got more than a handful of books I'm looking for. But I hate *wasting* ink and paper to print off a short list. I'm picky like that.
But most of the time, I'll go with two or three books in mind and come out with a dozen books. Most of the books I pick up I get from browsing. Things that just jump out at me and say, "read me, read me!" So I'm spontaneous--more so than anywhere else--at the library.
My "system" if you can call it that is to not go over what two bags can hold. I use the black canvas bags I picked up at the grocery store. They're much better than the plastic bags I used to use. Not that I wasted plastic bags--I used them til they couldn't take any more abuse--but this just works better all around.
1 comment:
Ahhhh - libraries! One of my favorites subjects and one of my favorite places! As for being spontaneous - there's no better place for that than the library! If you take a book out and you don't like it, you haven't spent money on it, so you don't have to feel guilty about not reading it! We have a wonderful library less than a mile from our house and we use it a lot. However, when they stopped putting the due date stickers in the books and started giving you a "receipt" with a due date, we started having more overdue fines than ever before! But we feel that the money goes to buying more books, so it's not so awful!
Hubby and I are empty nesters and our grown daughters are all readers as well. The library was one of their first outings when they were babies - I don't know if any of them made it to the age of two weeks before going to the library! And when they were in the picture book stage, we'd often have 60 books out at one time - a few for hubby and I, and the rest for the kids. When we'd get home from the library, they'd just sit on the floor in the family room and spend at least an hour looking at their new treasures!
Today I'm very thankful for being able to access the library's database online! I can look up books on Amazon, after I've read it about it on someone's blog, for example, then I see if they have it at the library. If they don't have it, the library is happy to interloan it for me. Or I can check a neighboring suburb's library website and see if they have it and go there if it's urgent enough!
Like you, I go with post-its, or envelopes or even a printed page of books I'm looking for. And I always look at the New Books first (and often never venture beyond that!). First I look for Christian fiction, then I look in the new non-fiction, in the 200's, for the new Christian non-fiction. You do have to be discerning there, however, as there are books about angels, and new-agey stuff, and the occult and atheism in that section! I read who has endorsed a book and I also go by the publisher.
Hope this isn't too long!! I love your blog and check in every day! I'm doing the ESV Chronological Plan and it's going great so far!
Susan
moot96 AT aol DOT com
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