February 9: Library Lovers' Day

Justin and I were so excited for Library Lovers' Day - it is right up our nerd alley.  Free books?  Sign me up!  No, seriously though, I won the shit out of reading challenges every summer when I was growing up.  It was not nearly as good for my street cred as you'd think it would be.  Doesn't change the fact that library's are bastions of learning and fun for children of all ages.

And beavers?  Or... is that a chipmunk?  Seriously - what kind of animal is this?

So we woke up early to beat the church crowd and headed to the library.  I know there isn't likely to be a bum rush on the library, but we figured the church crowd and wholesome, Sunday-afternoon-reading-for-fun crowd would have fairly significant overlap.  So, while they were all gussied up for Jesus and grabbing brunch, we were heading to the local book lounge for some scholastic hullabaloo.

Or so we thought...

CLOSED!?!  Closed on Sunday?!?!?!  What the shit, Texas?  This was NOT an issue for me when I was growing up in, apparently Godless, Connecticut.  Or when we moved to, definitely Godless, California.  Or, like totes Godless, Michigan where Justin grew up.  See, Texas?  They all left time in the morning for church!!  UGH.

Justin was particularly devastated.

So, no library to love.  What would we do with our unrequited bibliophilia?  We decided, instead, to sort through our books at home and pick out some to donate to the library when it opened back up the next day.  I tear through books at a decent clip so there are piles and piles from before I got my Kindle.  We donated about three-four arm-fulls of good fiction books at various skill levels.  

So, even if our local library didn't love us back, we donated it tender.  Or something.

Mostly, looking back, we were pretty disappointed that this holiday exists, but isn't celebrated widely by libraries around the country.  Print media is starting to disappear (says the person with the Kindle herself) and I would love to see libraries take the opportunity to get people back in the door at least once a year.  See, I do love my Kindle, but here's the issue - I buy books I've pre-selected.  I don't just... browse... like I used to at the library.  There is some joy to just stumbling onto new books because there are walls and walls of them to choose from.

I suddenly have the desire to go around the country drumming up support for libraries.  You know what... I think I'll start next Sunday.  In Oklahoma.  Or Arkansas.  Or basically ANYWHERE BUT TEXAS.