One of the nice things about being gainfully employed again is that we’ve been able to start buying books again. Our kids are beyond bookworms–perhaps the term “book black holes”. My kids scarf down books the way some kids scarf down chips. The only reason Terhi and I aren’t as voracious is a simple lack of time.
But while our book-buying has increased, it has in no way increased enough to satisfy our children’s reading appetites. Richard, our youngest, has just started reading chapter books for fun, and has devoured about 30-40 Magic Treehouse Books in less than a month. I’ve seen him knock down three in a day. The only reason the older two don’t go through books just as fast is because they seldom read anything under 300 pages anymore.
This month I’ve had to swear (mostly) off books until my novel is written, but in recent memory I’ve gone through two or three in in a month at least. Pretty much all of our video “rental” is from the library.
In short, we would be completely stuck without our local libraries. I may grouse about some of the things my taxes go toward, but libraries are worth every dollar. It may be the one public service I get more than my fair share from. We have an awesome library in Sandy. It’s always busy, and it can be hard to get your hands on some of the more popular books, but I’m always able to find more to read than I have the time for. The kids bring tote bags bulging with returns and take them home bulging with new books.
And yet we still spend enough at Barnes & Noble to make their yearly membership a no-brainer.
This was meant to be a “gratitude” post, as I’ve set myself a goal to write at least one post a week expressing gratitude for something. This may be a double-helping post. I’m grateful for libraries, and I’m grateful for a family that values reading. I’m glad that my kids are learning to love books, no matter the size. And I’m glad that we’ve established a habit of my reading books to the kids regularly. So much happiness in our lives is centered around books.
So in our case we can buy happiness–it’s just that usually we can check it out for three weeks at a time, instead.