The fate of the library

I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Until I was ten, my house sat in the middle of a small neighborhood atop a large hill. We called it a hill, but the people here in my beach town might just call it a small mountain. There was one road up it - the kind that makes you feel you might not make it as you lean heavy on the gas to power the car up.

On the other side of that hill, down below it, sat our public library. As mentioned there was no road down the other side to get to that library, only a mildly worn dirt path with a wall of trees on one side and about a 30 foot drop on the other side. The path was 2 feet wide. I never saw anyone travel it but me, my friend Trisha, or my brother. 

On Saturdays I'd watch cartoons, eat a bowl of cereal, then hop on my white bike with the white basket and the flower-print banana seat and sail down that dirt path like a Kamikaze. Riding the path made me nervous, but the lure of books inside that building was enough to make me shove my fear aside.

I had my very own library card. It was second only to my Barbie townhouse and my bike in terms of possessions I was most proud of. I felt so grown up going to the library by myself, with my own card, at the ripe age of seven -- never mind that I spent all my time there in the children's section. Sitting in that library reading those books gave me the feeling I could do or become anything.

I could only check out as many books as would fit in my bike basket, and I'd have to push the bike back up the steep, narrow path. So I'd spend an hour or so in the library reading, then choose which books were worthy of the push.

I remember thinking I was the luckiest kid because I could bike to a library whenever I wanted.  Is it any wonder I became an author? It was either that or a librarian, but I knew I couldn't be quiet for that long every day!

Today I'm longing for a chance to hop on that banana seat and ride down that path once again. I wonder what inside that library branch has changed, and what looks the same. The thing that got me nostalgically remembering my weekly treks to the library as a kid is this post by Seth Godin on the future of the public library. And the librarian.


These days I read a lot on the Internet; I frequently browse bookstores; I own a Kindle; I buy paper books; and I still borrow books from my public library. No longer do I ask which books are worth the push. Now I ask, which books are worth the price. What about you - do you utilize your public library? Or do you just use the Internet or book stores? Do you use an e-reader like the Kindle?