I was listening to NPR the other day and they were interviewing Librarians about library attendance in the last year. Not surprisingly, library attendance is up by about 20 – 30 percent. More and more people are going to the library for their books. Why? Well as you might have guessed, when it costs twice as much to fill up our cars at the gas station, and fill up our shopping carts at the supermarket it’s hard to find extra cash lying around. I know some people have a line item for books in their monthly budgets and no matter what; they still buy their books every month. I’m certainly one of those people.
Lately, I’ve been at my local library giving my library card a work out. I’m always going to buy my ‘go-to’ authors latest releases because eventually they’ll find a place on my keeper shelf. But, I’m finding when it comes to debut authors and authors that are new to me, well, to be honest I go to the library first to check out if I want to read that author. If it’s a yes, I’m buying the next book. If it’s a no, I’ll borrow their second book.
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PJ
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 2:45 pm:
Maria, you’re fortunate to have such a terrific library! Mine is very small so choices are limited. They only carry hardbacks and usually only the very well-known romance authors so that limits my romance borrowing significantly. They’ve been trying to convince the county to allocate funds to build a new library but council has voted it down for the past five years.
When I lived in Jacksonville, FL I had a fabulous branch library just a couple miles from my house. They carried an extensive selection of books of all types including romance hardbacks and paperbacks. I was in there just about every Saturday.
PJ
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 2:46 pm:
Oops! Sorry, that should have been Marisa!
Gannon
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 3:16 pm:
Small town = small library. As much as I love our town, the library has a pitifully small romance section, so most of the books they have would be the auto buys for me. I try to swap books with my niece or I make occasional trips to the used book store.
MaryKate
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 4:00 pm:
Uh, nope. I don’t do the library. I am very fastidious about keeping my list of books I want, and there is NO guarantee the library will have them. I have a large book budget and I buy mine. Then I do one of three things with them:
Keep – Mine, mine ALL mine!
Share – I send them to my friend, Annie and she reads them.
Donate – I donate my gently used books to a local chemotherapy center. I know a woman who is recovering from breast cancer, and she said to me one day, “Why can’t they ever have anything GOOD to read there? All they’ve got are serious books. I want a happily ever after to keep me company when I’m being treated for CANCER!” I smiled, handed her a large bag of books and said, “DONE.”
Maria Lokken
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 5:39 pm:
Mary Kate – you kill me… you just kill me.
You’re a woman after my own heart.
orannia
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 6:24 pm:
I live at my local library (according to the librarians
I know all the librarians by name (although that’s a given because I like to put names to faces). I’ve even been know to bribe them with morning tea! I’m lucky in that my local library system (Auckland) is fantastic! They have a huge range of books and have the most marvellous thing called ‘Suggestions For Purchase’, which I try not to abuse… They are also very prompt at getting newly released books in – the library’s copies of Loved Enshrined were in circulation before my own copy arrived! AND, they have numerous branches, which means what may not be in local branch may be at another. Sorry, I’m a complete convert. I still have certain auto-buy authors – Nalini Singh is one – but they are rare…I’m saving up to buy my first home…so I use the library from almost all of my books.
MK *hugs* I think that is such a lovely thing to do! I used to accompany my mother to her chemotherapy appointments (I didn’t want her to go alone) and the reading material (mostly magazines) was old, although the staff tried! So I always made sure she had something in her bag to read to distract her.
orannia
Gannon
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 8:11 pm:
MK, you’re an angel! What a lovely thing to do. And people being treated for cancer ABSOLUTELY need reading material with a happy ending!
Marisa
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 9:39 pm:
MK – I can totally relate, MINE, ALL MINE. But you slay me – that’s such a wonderful idea to give your books to the center. You’ve totally inspired me to find a place that would welcome my well loved books. Thanks!
PJ and Gannon – I’m really lucky with my library – it’s plugged into a county wide system so you can order books from any of the libraries in the county and they have ALL the latest releases – order on line and they call you when it’s ready! OH yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!
Maria Lokken
on Sep 3rd, 2008
@ 9:57 pm:
Miss Marisa – it’s sounds like your gloating…. hmm….
heidenkind
on Sep 4th, 2008
@ 12:29 am:
LOVE the library. Free reading is akin to free food for me.