Friday Confession: Library Junkie

There’s a group for this, right?

Hello, my name is _____________ and I confess that I’m a library junkie.

If there’s not, I’ll start one.  We can all meet once a week, toting our overflowing bags, worn down cards, and compare our overdue fines because I just need a few more days, darnit!

It’s good to be one of the cool kids.

When I was teaching, I had an excuse to buy books for just about any age, because my 4th/5th grade classroom had reading levels from kindergarten, all the way up to high school.

“It’s for the classroom, honey.”

When I left teaching to be a stay-at-home-parent, I left some of my collection behind for the fresh-outta-college teacher who took my place.  I didn’t have the storage space in my house to keep all of the books I’d acquired, even in the short number of years I’d been teaching, and she had no collection of her own.  So it made sense.  I kept some of my favorites, and left others behind for future readers.

Now, on one of those rare occasions that I can browse through the children’s section of a bookstore without my two kiddos tagging along, I find a small part of myself wishing I were back in a setting where I could justify purchasing this book…and that one…oh, and that one too…oh, and that one is supposed to be really good….

Because I still don’t have the space.  And my oldest is three.  There’s a limit to how long she’ll sit and listen.  There’s also a limit to how much time I have to read for myself, and if I bought every book that caught my interest, I’d have a sky-high “to-be-read” pile.  So instead, I keep a digital wish list on Goodreads.   About once a week, I browse my list and decide which books I want to read, either for myself or with Preschooler, and then I send my “list” to my library’s hold service.

  Living in a county with an extensive library service is my godsend.  The books are pulled from wherever in the county they are available, sent to my “home” library, and put on a shelf where I can pick them once I’m notified by email that they are available.  Fantastic, because our library visits are sometimes leisurely, but more often dominated by an egocentric 3-year-old who is interested in looking at HER books and HER books only, or a Baby who, despite being cleaned, fed, and happy will suddenly start screaming like his world is ending (you’re nodding your head now, right?)

So yes, God bless my public librarians who make my life easier and allow me to get my “fix”.

They’re the best kind of supplier.