Button Day!

I admit it- I'm a button junkie. I love them. Somewhere in my closet is a jar full of them. I'm still mad that my Gramma's old collection got pitched. it's nice to know that I'm not alone, and that there's a day for us. I don't collect them for value, just for the way they look. I really should dig my collection out and do a craft project with them.

There's a mystery series about a button collector/seller, BTW. Kylie Logan wrote it. Here's the first book in the series:

I Should Be In Bed Right Now

But instead, I'm up cross stitching. I spent my one night off this weekend reading (Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan & Tempest In A Teapot by Amanda Cooper) & stitching. Here's my progress on La Fleur:

Sorry, but as I've mentioned before, photography is NOT one of my stronger skills. Anyway, I'm now approximately a third of the way finished and will hopefully be sending the pattern on to my penpal, Paula, soon!

15 Question Book Meme

This was originally a 15 question fantasy/scifi/horror meme as seen here, but I decided to make it a general book meme instead.


What was the last book you finished reading?
Live Right & Find Happiness by Dave Barry

What was the last book you did not finish reading?
Just the Sex, Ma'am by Tina Folsom. It was getting repetitive.

What was the last book you read that you liked but most people didn’t?
Not sure, to be honest.

What was the last book you read that you disliked?
Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist

How long do your 1-sitting reading sessions usually last?
If I'm at home, a couple of hours.

What are you currently reading?
The Dark Side of the Road by Simon R Green

Do you like it so far?
I only just started it, but yes.

How long ago did you buy the book you are currently reading?
About 2 weeks ago via Amazon.

What was the last physical sf/f/h book you bought?
Jinn & Juice by Nicole Peeler

What is the genre/sub-genre you like to read the most?
My tastes are kind of all over the place. I like cozy mysteries, especially the ones featuring food and/or books. I like Regency era romances. Humorous fantasy/sci-fi.

What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you dislike the most and why?
anything with Zombies. Just don't like them.

What is your favorite electronic reading device?
I have a Kindle Keyboard and I like it much more than I thought I would. It was a gift from a former friend. I never thought I'd want an e-reader, but it IS great for traveling. The poor thing is developing problems now due to it's advanced (in computer terms) age & heavy use, so I'm debating upgrading to a Paperwhite.

What was the last sf/f/h eBook you bought?
Boundary Crossed by Melissa Olson (not my cousin, but I got a huge laugh at the coincidence)

Do you read books exclusively in 1 format (physical/electronic)?
Nope. I'm a reading slut- any format is fine!


Do you read eBooks exclusively on a single device?
Mostly yes. I have my Kindle as mentioned above, but my tablet also has the Kindle app. I use it more for games, but have read a book or two on it while waiting for the Kindle to recharge.

Today is....

National Library Worker's Day!

So go say thank you to all those librarians out there!

I'd like to thank Donna, Karen, Linda, Angel, and all the others at my branch library. Also Mom & all of her former coworkers who were amused by my lack of restraint and eagerness to check out as many books as I could carry!

Books & Bloggers Book Swap!

Signed up for another exchange since the last one was so much fun!

New Version Book Challenge

I'll most likely do the Goodreads challenge again for 2015, but I found this online and think I'll add it into the mix.

Hopefully the link works- it's a printable checklist for the Popsugar Reading Challenge.

The Ghost & Lady Alice- Marion Chesney

This was a fun little romp with a few screwball elements. Alice is a scullery maid on a ducal estate, mistreated, and desperately wanting a better life. She ventures upstairs one night after everyone has gone to bed and sees a portrait of her employer's ancestor- a man who was a known rake & libertine, but who treated his servants fairly and with kindness. The nearly broken Alice wishes out loud that he could come bck and take her away from her miserable existance.

Gervase, the 8th Duke, is quite startled to find himself summoned back into existance after his death nearly a century before. He is amused by the little scullery maid who has unwittingly brought him back and decides to help her. It takes a while to put his plan into motion, but he eventually spirits Alice the scullery maid away and manages to bring her into society as Alice the French Countess.

The plan is to find Alice a titled husband and give her the secure life she'd dreamed of. Of course things NEVER go according to plan...after a disastrous series of engagements, Alice and her Ghostly Duke realize they've fallen in love. Now how do they get their happily ever after?

It's the little things...

Ok, in the hopes of cheering myself up, I am posting a list of a few things that make me happy. I think I've done this before, but that's ok. It's my blog and I can do that. LOL

1. My grumpy little black cat being affectionate and cuddly.

2. My big fat gray cat flopping down and showing me his belly in an attempt to entice me to play with him.

3. Turkey Hill Coffee Ice Cream (one of my newer addictions)

4. Getting packages in the mail.

5. Finding DVD's I really want to watch or books I want to read on serious sale on Amazon!

6. Getting new issues of my British Cross Stitching magazines

7. Playing Bewjeweled 3 & Jewel Quest on my cellphone

8. Selling books at the used book store and getting more money for them than expected

9. BACON!!!

10. That relaxed feeling when I wake up and realize it's a day off and I don't HAVE to get up and do anything if I don't want to

11. Finding new patterns by one of my favorite cross stitch designers

12. Mentally designing/decorating my dream house & planning the extensive trip I intend to take once I win the lottery


So what makes YOU happy? Leave a comment and let me know!

When I Left Home- Buddy Guy w/David Ritz

I love blues. B. B. King is one of my favorite artists ever. I was vaguely familiar with Buddy Guy, and when he & B. B. came to town together a few years ago, I took my dad to the concert with me. Buddy opened the show and was not only an awesome musician, some of the stories he told between songs were a howl. The highlight of his set was when he jumped off the stage and strolled up the aisle, still playing. We had gotten our tickets late and wound up sitting in the back of the theater, and danged if Buddy didn't actually walk & play all the way back to where we were. He was just about to pass our row when he looked up from his guitar and saw my dad sitting on the aisle. He stopped dead in his tracks, said "How do you do, sir?" and shook my dad's hand before standing there and talking to him for 5 minutes. (I now know from reading this book that my dad falls almost exactly between Buddy & B. B. in age) Well, my dad grinned for the rest of the night and Buddy Guy earned two fans for life.


This autobiography filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. David Ritz has worked with several other blues artists on books and they always give you a feel of the artist's personality and are entertaining as well as informative.  Buddy never plays the 'oh poor me' card, but is very honest about his humble beginnings and how hard he had to hustle, even after he became a musician. Unscrupulous record execs took advantage of him (and numerous others), yet he retained his love for his music and doesn't seem to hold a grudge.


I would recommend this to any blues fan, as well as anyone who likes a good read.

Monday Musings- 5 W's of Reading

This is a guest post I did for my friend's blog last year. I thought I'd re-post it here for anyone who may be interested:

The 5 W’s of Reading






Who got me started on my path to being a lifelong reader? That would be my mother, Pollyanna. (see earlier guest post if you’re not familiar with that reference) Mom was a devoted booklover long before I came along, and she was determined that I would love books too. This is one of the few things we didn’t fight about when I was a teenager. Some of my earliest memories are of Mom reading to me- Little House in The Big Woods was one of our first books. I also still own most of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books for Young Readers that she’d bought in the hopes of piquing my interest.


Why do I read? With so many amazing things out there to discover, why wouldn’t I read? Books have been my escape from boring classes (not that they had anything to do with me failing Algebra II), a refuge from horrible periods in my life (most of high school, to be precise), and a way to go places I might not get to visit otherwise. I found my way to the back of the wardrobe with Lucy, sailed on the raft with Thor Heyerdahl, danced at Almack’s with countless Regency romance heroines, and went to the stars with the crew of the Enterprise. I’ve learned to cook odd dishes, found new uses for household items, and laughed myself silly at the family antics of authors like Erma Bombeck & Teresa Bloomingdale. No matter how awful my day has been, I can lose myself in a book and suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad.


When do I read? Basically, any time I have unavoidable down time- like waiting in lines, or at the doctor’s office gives me time to read. I read before I go to bed at night, and on my lunch breaks at work. (and occasionally when I should be working) my days off, I divide my time between reading and cross-stitch, with breaks for meals & shopping. (and praying for the housework fairies to show up so I don’t have to put my book down and clean the litter box/bathroom/laundry, etc)


Where do I read? Everywhere, really. At home I have a spot on the end of my couch with a LED lamp that shines over my shoulder. (it’s also my cross-stitch spot) I put my feet up on the recliner and settle down with a book or two and a cat or three. Bliss. I also read in bed (with a clip-lamp on my headboard, for extra light and so my lazy butt doesn’t have to get up and cross the room to turn off the light if I’m ready to sleep) on lazy days or nights when I can’t sleep. I read in restaurants when eating alone, and long lines. (Thanks to the good friend who bought me a Kindle, waiting at the DMV to renew my license this year was almost pleasant) I read on planes, but not in cars/on buses/subways. For some reason, the latter three give me motion sickness when I try to read on them.


What do I read? I’d like to say EVERYTHING! However, that would be a lie. The librarians at my branch love to see my reserve requests roll in- they say I read the most eclectic assortment of things they’ve ever seen. (I tell them they ought to see my mother’s list. Hee!) While I can’t claim to read everything- I have something of an aversion to religious themed books, self-help, and nearly anything ‘written’ by celebrities- I do read a wide variety of things. Right now it’s mostly mysteries & Regency romances, with the odd fantasy and humor writing thrown in. I’ve become rather enamored of steampunk in the last year or so (Gail Carriger is one of my favorite authors in that genre- an unconventional British heroine with a fondness for tea, werewolves, and vampires!) and I don’t care much for holidays, but find myself fascinated by books about British holiday traditions. I’m something of an Anglophile as you might have guessed, so I also tend to read books by British authors or that are set in Britain.) I love comic strip collections-Bloom County, Two Lumps, and Unshelved are of my 3 favorites. I like children’s books with beautiful pictures and/or funny stories. (The Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems crack me up) I love a good vampire story, but sadly have read a LOT of bad ones while looking for the good stuff. Charles De Lint and Bill Bryson are two other favorite writers, along with Jen Lancaster.

Poetry Monday

Today we have Roald Dahl. Enjoy!

Television



The most important thing we've learned,


So far as children are concerned,


Is never, NEVER, NEVER let


Them near your television set --


Or better still, just don't install


The idiotic thing at all.


In almost every house we've been,


We've watched them gaping at the screen.


They loll and slop and lounge about,


And stare until their eyes pop out.


(Last week in someone's place we saw


A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)


They sit and stare and stare and sit


Until they're hypnotised by it,


Until they're absolutely drunk


With all that shocking ghastly junk.


Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,


They don't climb out the window sill,


They never fight or kick or punch,


They leave you free to cook the lunch


And wash the dishes in the sink --


But did you ever stop to think,


To wonder just exactly what


This does to your beloved tot?


IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!


IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!


IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!


IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND


HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND


A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!


HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!


HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!


HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!


'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,


'But if we take the set away,


What shall we do to entertain


Our darling children? Please explain!'


We'll answer this by asking you,


'What used the darling ones to do?


'How used they keep themselves contented


Before this monster was invented?'


Have you forgotten? Don't you know?


We'll say it very loud and slow:


THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,


AND READ and READ, and then proceed


To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!


One half their lives was reading books!


The nursery shelves held books galore!


Books cluttered up the nursery floor!


And in the bedroom, by the bed,


More books were waiting to be read!


Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales


Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales


And treasure isles, and distant shores


Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,


And pirates wearing purple pants,


And sailing ships and elephants,


And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,


Stirring away at something hot.


(It smells so good, what can it be?


Good gracious, it's Penelope.)


The younger ones had Beatrix Potter


With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,


And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,


And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-


Just How The Camel Got His Hump,


And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,


And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,


There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-


Oh, books, what books they used to know,


Those children living long ago!


So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,


Go throw your TV set away,


And in its place you can install


A lovely bookshelf on the wall.


Then fill the shelves with lots of books,


Ignoring all the dirty looks,


The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,


And children hitting you with sticks-


Fear not, because we promise you


That, in about a week or two


Of having nothing else to do,


They'll now begin to feel the need


Of having something to read.


And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!


You watch the slowly growing joy


That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen


They'll wonder what they'd ever seen


In that ridiculous machine,


That nauseating, foul, unclean,


Repulsive television screen!


And later, each and every kid


Will love you more for what you did.

5 for Sunday

back to something a little more literary...like 5 of my favorite romance novels!

Shanna- Kathleen Woodiwiss  "Shanna is a brat, but I'd like my own Ruark."


Jezebel's Sister- Emily Carmichael

"Wild West hookers meet a Christian wagon train led by a wanted man...I laughed out loud at this one"

Rose In Winter- Kathleen Woodiwiss

"We should all have our own Christopher..."

Scandalous- Karen Robards 

"Ummm, what dead brother? He won't mind us spending his money- really!"

 Devil's Desire- Laurie Mc Bain   "Elysia & Alex are a hoot as they learn to love each other"

5 for Sunday

5 of my favorite Books- versions of this list have appeared on just about every blog I've had or website I've been on. Here it is again, in no particular order.

The Big Read list and how I rank on it

I confess freely that I have cribbed this from Nancy at Bookfoolery & Babble. (http://bookfoolery.blogspot.com/) I did change the color coding to suit my taste. I hope she won't mind too terribly as I am a very big fan of her blog.

The Big Read list has been passed around quite a bit, this past week or two, so I thought I'd join in. It's a list of 100 books; the BBC believes most people will have read only 6 or so off this list. They probably have a point. I doubt you'll see anyone outside the book blogging community getting all excited about the list. The average Joe probably has only read what's required or the most popular tripe, right? Anyway, I'm going to alter mine a little.

Black = I have read it



Green = I read part of it but did not finish


Purple = I have read it AND I own a copy
** = A personal favorite from this list


Red =  Not familiar with this one or don't want to read it
Blue = Will eventually read this one

Orange = hated it


And without further ado, here's the list!


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte


4. Harry Potter Series - J. K. Rowling ** (in hardback, no less)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible


7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte


8. 1984 - George Orwell


9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman


10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott ** (must confess that I liked Little Men better)


12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy


13. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller


14. Complete Works of Shakespeare ** (I've read a LOT of Shakespeare, but not EVERYTHING)


15. Rebecca - Daphne DuMaurier
16. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien


17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk


18. Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger


20. Middlemarch - George Elliot


21. Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell**


22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald


23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens


24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy


25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams**

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky


28. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck


29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll**


30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame


31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy


32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens


33. Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis**


34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen


36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis**


37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini


38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres


39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (own an autographed copy and still haven't read it)


40. Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne**


41. Animal Farm - George Orwell


42. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown


43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving


45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins


46. Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery


47. Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy


48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood


49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding


50. Atonement - Ian McEwan


51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel


52. Dune - Frank Herbert


53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (I don't suppose watching the movie counts?)


54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen


55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth


56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon


57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (you may be noting a trend in my attitude toward Dickens)


58. Brave New World - Alduous Huxley


59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime- Mark Haddon


60. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez


61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck


62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov


63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt


64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold


65. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas


66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac


67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy


68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding


69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie


70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville (an entire chapter on the color white?!? GAH)


71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens


72. Dracula - Bram Stoker


73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett


74. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson**


75. Ulysses - James Joyce


76. The Inferno - Dante**


77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome


78. Germinal - Emile Zola


79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery


80. Possession - A. S. Byatt**


81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (the only Dickens I can halfway stand)


82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell


83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker


84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert


86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry


87. Charlotte's Web - E. B. White**


88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom (are you freaking kidding me?!?)


89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle**


90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad


92. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery


93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks


94. Watership Down - Richard Adams


95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy O'Toole


96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute


97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare** (not sure why this isn't included w/Complete Works above, but whatever)


99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl**


100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Well, if you take out the 33 that I haven't read and the 6 that I haven't finished, I don't think i finished too shabbily. 61 out of 100. Anyone else want to weigh in?

Great bookstores

Another post from the BBC:


http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20101118-the-worlds-greatest-bookshops


As I mention in my library post earlier, I love bookstores as much as I love libraries. I have literally planned vacations around book shopping. My first trip to Toronto was a giant book buying binge. I found Bakka Science Fiction Books and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Then there was the cookbook store, whose name I've forgotten. And so many more....


London? Mom had to drag me away from Charing Cross Road. It's not the bookstore Mecca it once was, but I still had a lot of fun plundering the stores we found. I bought a ton of books that I began to resent as I had to lug them around for the rest of the day, having planned badly.


I even love online bookstores as my denuded bank account, Amazon, and Better World Books will all tell you. And nothing is more fun for me than spending an hour (or 3) digging through the stacks in a good used bookstore.


So, among my other life goals now, is the challenge of getting to as many of the bookstores on the BBC list as possible.


Tell me, what are some of YOUR favorite bookstores?

Love Letter to the Library

I read this article on BBC.co.uk : http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/willgompertz/2010/11/are_libraries_out_of_date.html

Go ahead and read it, I'll wait. 

Ok. Are libraries passe? I don't think so. Nor should they be phased out. My mom was a career librarian and gave me my love for reading. Even before she went back to work, we took weekly trips to the library to stock up on books. Back in those days, books were a luxury we couldn't afford to buy on our own and the library was always there for us. Once she started working there? I was like a kid in a candy store. Dad & I would go to pick her up (he worked nights, so he was free to keep an eye on me after school while Mom was at work) and I would frantically grab books to take home. If I was a good girl, I was allowed in the back where I could plunder through the newly returned books for treasures. If the librarians were busy back there, I'd browse through the stacks and carry a pile up to take home. 

I watched my first videotape at the library. Back then, our library had 3 viewing stations so that people who didn't have VCR's at home could still see movies, and I think they were one of the first libraries in the state to offer that. Anyway, the first one I watched was Star Wars. There were also a few listening stations for LP's and audiotapes. I learned about old radio serials from the AV department and checked out all of the Amos & Andy tapes, as well as other programs. I picked out albums based solely on the cover art (hey, I was a kid) and discovered jazz and blues and a handful of comedians. (mom didn't censor my book choices much, but she kept an eagle on on the audio selections- not that the library had too much of anything hardcore. public funding and all that) Oh, and the magazines! I didn't know that there were that many magazines available. I quickly figured out that most of them didn't appeal to me, but just knowing that they were there was enough.

When I got older, I was hired as a library page. This is basically a glorified term for shelver. I felt all grown up- I had to get my social security card for payroll, the librarians who had always seen me as "Marie's kid" now treated me like one of them, and I still got to take home as many books as I could carry, plus I got PAID! Shelving allowed me to find books I might not have seen otherwise. When I went off to college and was given a choice of jobs for my work-study financial aid, I immediately chose to work in one of the college libraries. My bosses were amazed by my shelving prowess and amused by the stacks of books I constantly took back to the dorm.

Post college, I eventually wound up working in bookstores. I'd still be there if A: they paid more, and B: I hadn't thoroughly come to loathe working retail. I like books, people I'm not so crazy about. With the employee discount, I bought books out the wazoo. I stopped using the library as much because it wasn't as convenient and I hated waiting for them to buy the new books that I wanted to read. (still do. I realize that they have to spend their money on books that will appeal to the largest number of people and can't buy EVERYTHING, but it makes me crazy when they don't get a new title in for months, if at all)

Although I no longer work retail, I still buy a fair amount of books. But I also use the library a lot more. It took a few years for me to find a branch that I liked- the main library here is mostly staffed by some of the most lazy, obnoxious people I've ever met. (alas, they're in a union, so they can't be easily fired) There are a handful of VERY nice people there, who I miss talking to, but I got tired of dealing with the others and eventually quit going there. The branch closest to my house had a rotating staff when I started using it and I had numerous problems there at first, but now they have a permanent staff who are some of the most delightful people I know. They know me by name (and I know their names) , are amused by my omnivorous reading & music habits, and we share family stories and book recommendations all the time. I use the computers there a few times a week (no printer at home, and can't print some things at work, so I go to the library for that too) and attend a few of the programs when they fall in hours I'm not working. We even held a book club meeting there once. (the club disbanding shortly after that was a coincidence- My friend Laura and I keep trying, but can't get one off the ground.)

It makes me crazy when I hear people say that they don't know what good libraries do. Let's see- free access to books/magazines/music/videos, free access to computers (limited time, but they're free!), free classes in computer skills/creating resumes/job searching online, a safer place for kids to go after school, school tutoring/homework assistance, storytimes and other programs for small children...the list goes on. Anyone who doesn't want to go through formal education can still learn about almost anything under the sun by reading library books.

Two years ago here in Louisville, one of the most hotly contested issues was a proposed library tax. It was an occupational tax that would have cost most people about $5 a year, if that. The money it would have raised could have increased the collection, built new branches, remodeled some of the older branches, and been a real asset to the community. It got voted down. I partially understand why- our mayor was known for taking money earmarked for projects and throwing into his own pet issues, but a lot of people said they voted against it "because I don't use the library, so why should I pay for it?" Well, going by that logic, I don't have kids and am not going to, so why should I pay taxes for schools? Some people don't drive- why should they pay taxes for roads? What if you need to use it some day and it's not there? For $5 a year, it would have been a bargain.

Anyway, now that I've rambled on forever, the point that I was trying to make is that I love libraries. Friends and family members laugh at mom & me when we go on vacation and one of the first things we want to do is go check out the local library and the bookstores. On my first trip to Toronto, one of the first things I did was pick up a handful of fliers from a library and mail them to Mom in NC. When we went to London, we didn't get to a library, but by gad we went to as many bookstores as I could drag Mom into. (And I learned the valuable lesson of go to the British Museum first, hit the Charing Cross Road bookstores last or you will spend the entire time you're in the museum waiting for your arm to fall off under the weight of all the books you foolishly bought and have to lug around until you go back to your hotel!) We went to Washington DC and toured the Library of Congress (beautiful building- if you've never been, GO) and got official library cards from it. (one of my most prized possessions) And if anyone ever succeeds in dragging me to NYC, you can best believe that I will be going to the NY Public Library and getting my picture taken with the lions!