The Library
On this website you will see a lot of posts about books. I love books for learning about new subjects, learning how to do new things, expanding my horizons in new ways, entertainment, and a lot of other things. Over the last three years I have had the opportunity to finish my masters degree which required a lot of reading from books, welcome 2 kids into the world in addition to the one I already had who all love books, and to read on my own time a lot. All told I have read at least 500 books in that time. Sure some of them are kids books, but there have been a lot of other ones as well.
The point is that I have gone through a lot of books. I have only bought about 25 books total in that time. That may be a high guess, but I want to be sure I am not over exaggerating.
How have I done this? I have made great use of the local library. Each time I go I find books I didn’t know I wanted to read in addition to what I was looking for. Libraries are amazing. They let you try out books without having to buy them first! Maybe you aren’t like me, but there are a very few books that I will read more than once. Ironically recipe books face almost the worst attrition rate. So why buy them to have them just sit on your self? That would definitely clutter up your life and mind in addition to making a dent in the finances.
For my wife and I books are a must, so is managing our finances. So we go the library route. Here is a short list of reasons why your library is really rocking in your favor.
- Libraries have room to store a lot of books! This means that they are more likely to have the books your looking for, and many more related to the subject of interest than the book store.
- They don’t charge a fee for membership. This is amazing, they are funded publicly and so you can read and learn for free. This is like being able to take mini classes for free! They do charge fees for late books, but honestly they are usually so small you can chalk them up to improving the library and just move on.
- Libraries aren’t worried about having the latest trends only. Bookstores are trying to sell books. So they are looking for the latest moneymakers to maximize the bottom line. Libraries don’t have to worry about profits, so they can gather the classics and can afford to let books collect dust for years keeping them available for you.
- Most libraries are carrying the latest released books by the hottest authors. I have been impressed to find a wide variety of books all recently released at my library.
- Interlibrary loan. Often if your library doesn’t have a book another will and they gladly loan books between libraries. This basically gives you two or more libraries worth of books under one roof. Bookstores can’t keep up with the variety.
- Public events are hosted and provided by libraries for your benefit for free on a regular basis. My library hosts free movies in a real theatre and has authors coming regularly to talk about their latest books. Don’t forget the kid’s story time. The best part about these events is they are provided for free, and are free of the pushy sales atmosphere sometimes found in bookstores.
- Libraries are conveniently located to where people are living and near community centers rather than in the mall. Dragging your kids there is easier than fighting them through the mall. This again helps you avoid the constant pressure to spend your money.
- You can try out books again and again at no cost to help decide if you actually want to buy it. There are a lot of good books available; you only need the ones that are amazing on your shelves. You can let the library store the rest!
- Frequenting the library and reading regularly will help you to stay educated and up to date with life. It will also increase your social smarts by making you a better conversationalist versed on a wider range of subjects.
- You can have a constantly changing bookshelf at home. You can check out a lot of books from the library and read them at your leisure. See what you really like and renew the really interesting ones. We do this for kid books. It is amazing what books the kids will love and which they just don’t care to open once we get home. By checking out lots of books for them we give them a constantly changing variety to choose from. This also reduces the request for the same book over and over (23 times in one day I think is the record for a favorite book we had).
So stop buying books and check them out instead. Libraries are an amazing convenience available for free. They are usually funded by taxes so they aren’t free but this is all the more reason to use them, so you can get your moneys worth!
Check out your local library today. You will be surprised to find that many of your friends and neighbors may already be there as well.
Have you been to the library this year? How often do you check books out compared to buying them?
