There are certain tasks when moving that are crucial to get set up right away-- changing your address with the post office, getting utilities started, and getting a library card. After the dust settled after we moved it was only a day or two before we were down at the library eagerly asking for official library cards. We would have done it even sooner but you have to present a piece of mail with the correct address (hint: this is why changing the address promptly is so important). I think the first thing we checked out in town when we were deciding if we wanted to move here was the library. Arthur was slightly disappointed by the lack of shelves devoted to math and philosophy but he's coping. As we were headed down to the library we both started sing this song:
Personally, I am really excited about gardening currently and only checked out 3 or 4 gardening books and maybe 1 or 2 travel guides about Italy right now. I think I have a book stashed in each room right now as with a bigger home I keep forgetting where I have put my books at that I am reading at that time. Once again we get pretty excited about learning new things-- I have been known to jump up and down, wave my arms in the air, and dance a jig because learning something new is so thrilling. Any library is perfect for this-- whether is it books on compost gardening, bird watching, traveling to a new place, learning a new language, or just losing yourself in a story.
Now we are grateful to have a library just a 15 minute walk away but we are also closer to Manhattan Public Library and Hale Library which I have had long love affairs with. (I don't have a long list of previous boyfriends but library relationships on the other hand have been numerous.) I stopped by Manhattan Public Library the other night and was once again overwhelmed by the selection of books. Not just 25 books about gardening but 25 feet of shelf space devoted to gardening. I picked out a few and sat and read them sitting at a table with a large globe (got to love globes in libraries). As I went to check out I dusted off my MPL card and was glad to put it to use again. Of course I did have to show proof that my address was no longer Boyd Hall-- has it really been that long?
Fun with a library card started at a young age. It meant we didn't have to ask mom if we could get the VHS of Sword and the Stone for the twentieth time but could check it out or any other movie when we wanted. In college Hale Library was a home away from home-- or at least where my favorite chair to take a nap between classes was. I also saved thousands of dollars by checking out my textbooks from the libraries at K-State and during grad school. This also meant fewer textbooks to move into our new house. This love affair with library isn't new either. Here is a blog post my roommate and I wrote about our feelings for the JoCo Library when I lived in Kansas City (the video at the end of that post is worth watching). I will always be indebted to the librarians at the Marysville Library. They graciously allowed me to get a library card for the 2 months I lived there without proof of address. This provided me with fun books to read on long winter nights in a lonely, empty house. Also it was the only place I could get internet connect for my laptop so I applied for my first job there. As a kid Arthur spent so much time at the Norton library that when the librarians were going to get rid of the set of Harvard Classics on their selves they gave it to him since he has been the only person to read them in the past 20 years. Which is why in the near future we will be moving 20 volumes of the Harvard Classics into our home. And I thought we were done moving. Omni Vincit Amor.
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