Ok, I'm going to pull my sneaky shit again and say I finished a book this week, just because I'm ALMOST finished. I would definitely be done with Burial Rites today, but it's for a book club so that's not allowed. UGH.
I also started Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin, which I am really into. It's only 200 pages, so it's going to be a fast read. I know so far I only have 2 library books under my belt and maybe technically April is almost over, but I'm still very certain I'm going to read 6 books by the end of this month. Just watch me.
How much money I've saved on books read:
Adding Burial Rites, which is a $26 hardcover, this month I've saved $56!
The challenge for this week is to tell you why I love libraries or why I love being a librarian. I am not a librarian, so I can't tell you why I love it (even though I TOTALLY WOULD). So I'll tell you about why I love libraries.
Obviously, I always went to the library as a kid from preschool to jr. high. My mom taught us a certain respect for books at a young age and going to the hushed library was always the best time of my life. Honestly, picking out books was almost better than reading them. As I got older, I'd end up just grabbing a bunch of stuff that looked interesting, never reading them, and returning them. I guess having access to free books was exciting, I don't know.
When I went to college, I had some trouble adjusting. I mean, I was fine, but I just hated my living situation and didn't really know what to do with myself. My school doesn't have a typical campus with typical activities. I was just kind of in the city of Chicago with a lot of free time on my hands between easy classes. So I ended up wandering over to the enormous, beautiful nine floor library after a few years of hardly reading outside of school.
On the first floor they have the "popular library" which is just new releases and dvds and whatnot. At the time, I didn't know anything about new books, so I just found myself wandering around. I picked up Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and a few others with covers and premises that interested me. And that was where my love affair with books slowly began again. I was just so happy to be excited about something again. I knew I loved words, because I was interested in linguistics. I had just forgotten my love of words in stories. SOMEHOW I found book blogs after that, but I can't piece together the chronology of that discovery at all.
Anyway, libraries are amazing places to be. They inspire you to learn some new shit and just be still for a while. It's thanks to the library that I am here talking to you lovely people today. And let's not forget: FREE BOOKS!