A Lifetime of Libraries

I’ve been thinking about libraries and how impoverished my life would be without them.
 
I’ve visited ten different libraries in my county, nosed around libraries in other states, and – best of all – stepped into the Bodleian Library in Oxford (UK) which houses over eleven million texts. I explored Hay-on-Wye, a spit of a village in Wales with thirty bookshops of new, second hand, and antiquarian books. It’s the world’s first book town, yet they still have a library so residents can access books without spending money because poverty should not rob us of knowledge.
 
I’m notorious for slamming on the brakes and hopping out of the car to browse through someone’s Little Free Library, returning home with an intriguing book or magazine. During summer breaks, my children would follow me into a library every three weeks borrowing twenty or more books at a crack from Where’s Waldo and Winnie the Pooh to A Study in Scarlet and A Clockwork Orange. They are now intelligent, discerning adults thanks to those libraries.
 
Things change, including libraries. When I go to the library these days I pick up free passes to the zoo, art museum, and other cultural attractions. I take their online classes and borrow their tools and tech gadgets which I occasionally need but never want to own. And, of course, I get books.
 
I also listen to a podcast Not Your Mother's Library where my daughter enlightens and entertains book-loving listeners. Are you really surprised to learn that my youngest became a librarian? She says that my library card history shows I’ve borrowed over six thousand books and lost one.
 
I never said I was perfect, just well read.