I love to read. Nothing newsworthy there. But I feel like I’m the only person of my generation taking out library. Does no else love that special library smell? Or adore finding the hidden gems lurking in the stacks?
I do. I love the discovery. The ambling through sections both well browsed and not. Seeing what jumps out. This title I’ve wanted to read for years. That title that was mentioned on a podcast a few weeks back. This author. That striking cover. Essentially I use this method of whatever I happen upon as I browse the shelves to decide what to read next. It cuts through the overwhelm of the sheer number of greats books out there that I’m never feasibly going to read in this lifetime. And there’s scope for surprises which is just fab by me.
If that wasn’t enough, I love the minimalism of the library. No amassing a large collection of books while I’m traipsing about the globe. No amassing a bunch of books that don’t truly set me alight and make me want to refer to again and again. I can try books outside of my usual realms at zero risk. And no amassing a pile of unread books, never reading them all before I buy mor and the associated guilt. The library is liberating.
So I join the library. What supposed old fashioned thing do you do?
An Independent Maven 
5 replies on “Maven Matters: On Joining the Library”
Heck yeah! I love the library! I go there about once a week to get new books. I usually see a fair amount of people in the library where I live, too, so maybe it varies from location to location? If I can be a little nerdy for a second, I cried when I walked into my local bookshop. I’d never been in there, and the place was floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall books. It was beautiful.
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I’m possibly being slightly melodramatic, but great to find fellow library goers. You’re never the only one, even when it feels like it. There are people at my local library too, but most of them are older.
I looooove a good bookshop and think it’s completely normal and awesome to find them so beautiful that it brings tears! Where is this great place? I’m a big fan of independent bookshops that have their own unique personality.
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I used to buy books and keep them as “trophies” but now I just borrow books from the library. I love the library too, the perfect place to relax with a book or laptop 🙂
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A great library can be such a calm environment can’t it? A little oasis to escape for a little while.
I’ve definitely had times where I’ve bought books because I feel I ‘should’ own them and then never read them. Followed by guilt for buying more books when I still had unread one. Borrowing is much safer.
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[…] 📖 A love letter to the library! […]
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