Sunday 24 March 2013

Sunday Sundries: Aren't libraries cool?

Happy Sunday greetings, friends! I seem to have had a good week since that was a pretty cheerful opener, but mostly it was fairly standard- work, shopping with mum that included getting a few birthday presents for me (eeeeee!) and I got in a few walks to work, which hasn't happened for a WHILE, so that was awesome. And, yesterday I went to lunch with a coupla old friends and that was really fun and awesome even though it was SO COLD and also SNOWING in March. About which I am not impressed. At all.

To backtrack a little bit though, I walked to work some this week! And, on Friday I tried a new route and discovered that it's probably about 15 or 20 minutes quicker than the route I've been taking. About which I'm like 'Durrrrrrrr, me' and also now, 'Yay! I can have an extra 15 minutes pissing about at home now!' which, you know, is awesome. Because said walk got me into town about half an hour before work (I also left early), I swung by the library, mostly because the instagram photo-a-day thing I'm doing had 'library' as its key word yesterday, but also because, you know, time to kill in a place full of charity shops? Definitely too much temptation for poor little Laura who can't buy books.

SO, I went in the library and went 'Ahhhhh, books' in a relieved kind of way, and almost the very first book I saw was Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Wild as in, the book I've wanted to read since it came out because Strayed's Dear Sugar columns are basically my favourite thing I've read on the internet, and because Everyone Who Is Awesome has been reading it (especially this week, funnily enough) and, you know, gimme! I didn't at all expect it to be there, and, considering how good I'm already sure it is, it should probably be reserved for years but it was there and now it's mine and I'm like 'Library, I love you.'
I'm Bert. The library is Mary.

But seriously. On the whole because of this book buying ban I'm doing*, I've kind of been trying to avoid the library too because, you know, they're still books that I don't own, and I've got plenty that I do and I really should read them. But the thing is, it's awesome to know that a book that you're probably not going to find in a charity shop, at least for a very long time, and that's too expensive to buy because it's still pretty new, you're allowed to take FOR FREE and read it to your heart's content, and then take it back for someone else to enjoy. And then, if you want, you can take it out AGAIN and read it and take it back and... You get the picture.

I realise I just used a lot of words to explain how a library works, but I think it's really easy to forget how completely awesome it is that you can read books for free forever, and what else offers a service where you can get something you really really love for no money? I kind of can't think of anything. And anyone who wants to shut down libraries- ANY libraries- is clearly an idiot and I can't be putting up with that kind of bullshit (Tories beware...) 

And that's just... A thing I've been thinking about. In other news that involves books, with this library book I'm now in the middle of FIVE books which is a personal low/high for me of recent times (I've been trying to read not-too-many books at once because then I don't finish them and get all sad) and probably BECAUSE I'm reading so many, I've barely been reading at all and have been spending my evenings watching The Wire. Still, I've only got 10 episodes to go (!) and then obviously Netflix won't exist anymore so I'll HAVE to read.
Anyway. Have good weeks everyone! Tell me your library thoughts in the comments if you want. Or don't, whatever.

*Speaking of which, I told my mum how proud she should be of me since I haven't bought a book since LAST YEAR, and she pretty much laughed at me! Like it wasn't even a sacrifice at all! All I can say to that is, just WAIT until I'm set loose again after my birthday, THEN she'll see how awesome it was that I wasn't buying books. Mwahahahaha.

14 comments:

  1. Libraries are cool, but my most recent loans (outside of books for uni) have all been tv series so I kinda feel like like I'm doing it wrong.

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    1. Hahahaha, that isn't what libraries are for Kayleigh! But it's a perfectly acceptable use of them, I reckon! Libraries around here charge for that kind of thing, so I just use the internet for such things. Naughty...

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    2. My uni library lets me take them for free (not sure about the public libraries though) and I spend a lot of money on tv series so this is a much needed option. One day soon I'll get an actual book, I promise.

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    3. That's pretty sweet! If I could take out tv series for free, then I almost definitely would. Books? PAH!

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  2. Hurrah for library love! My local library is pretty awesome - they usually have the books I want, and they have a giant fish tank to look at, and they have a used bookstore (which obviously defeats the purpose of borrowing books, but the money goes towards the library, so it's still a good thing).

    Finish some books Laura! Sheesh. (Just kidding, I've never seen The Wire but I hear it's amazing.)

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    1. GIANT FISH TANK! I love looking at fish tanks. Bloody hypnotic. Our libraries sell books too, AND they're way cheap, so that's both bad and good haha!

      I finished a book this morning! And I'm going to finish the HP section today, I reckon. And I'll probably finish The Green Mile this week cause I really want to. So it's all going to be fine! Haha (The Wire IS pretty good. But I can think of quite a few programmes that I like better. So.)

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  3. YAY birthday presents
    And awww to library love letter. Even if it was mostly just explaining how libraries work but still, beautiful thing.

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    1. BIRTHDAY PRESENTS! Heyyyyyy, it's nearly your birthday! Even nearlier than mine! Woop woop!

      Well, I really LIKE how they work so... that's where the love COMES from! Shit dude, I don't know, I just didn't really have anything to write about haha.

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  4. I love my library! I don't read off my own shelves as my library is ridiculously awesome and has everything. But at least I'm not spending money on books, right?

    And yay, birthday presents :)

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    1. Sure! That's... Yeah, that's still not good. But still, YAY LIBRARIES! (As a whole, Surrey Libraries tend to have every book I want. Even if you have to order them in, you still get them. :) )

      BIRTHDAYYYYYY TIMES ARE SOON! I'm excited :)

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  5. Libraries are the best. I think we should have some kind of 'egg the houses of politicans who dont like libraries' event... is that illegal? :-p Also YAY YOU HAVE WILD! So exciting, really hope you love it as much as I did :-) Also, and because I can't be bothered to write a post but want somebody to know, I quit Facebook today, so now I can't buy books or use facebook or Amazon and I'm like... what will I do with my tiiiiiiime?!

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    1. IS egging houses illegal? I mean, I know it's not great, but... I'm sure we'd just get a slap on the wrist- you're a mother, they'd let you go free!

      I'm SO EXCITED to read Wild. Except I guess not that excited because I'm reading everything BUT it at the moment, but I honestly feel that I'm just getting all other books out of the way before reading it. I'm sure I'll love it :)

      Duuuuude, that's pretty awesome! You can do SO MANY things with your time! Go to the beach! Make crafty things! BABY SNUGGLES! I would totally be into reading about how you feel about leaving facebook like in a month or something though, like as a 'my life is SO MUCH BETTER NOW!' kind of thing. Cause I probably need to leave facebook. I did take it off my mobile devices, so that's one thing at least. But still.

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  6. I think I'm really starting to love my library. But I have a bit of a problem in that if I borrow a book that is amazing, I will probably go out and buy it too. Kinda defeats the object. I'm going to end up as a crazy old lady who ends up being killed by a falling bookshelf in her book hoarder's paradise of a home. Must resist buying books (failed today though). Still, I'm all for spreading the library love.

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  7. I love libraries (kind of half to because I love books and I work in one!). I really hate when parents come in for dvds and tell the kids to put the books back because "they have books at home" or the people who print 20 million pages from facebook and nearly break our printer. GRRRR! (Both things happened Saturday).

    I hate when people talk about shutting down libraries. It's always the people who don't use them who start that crap and don't care at all about the people who use the library.

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