Why Every Book Lover Should Have a Library Card

I want to talk about library cards today. When I was little, my mom would take myself and my two sisters to the library about once a week. Sometimes we would drive. Sometimes we would walk. Sometimes we would bike. And sometimes we would roller blade. Good times. We would arrive at the library with our backpacks packed full of books to return, empty them out, and then proceed to spend the next one to two hours choosing new books. My mom literally had to give us a limit of ten books because if she didn't we would each try to bring home at least twenty. That's how much we all loved reading.
 

And then, as we got older, we started to read less. We moved to a new town and didn't bother getting a library card. We got involved in sports and just hanging out with friends and reading kind of fell on the back burner. In high school, you just want to do different things. I wanted to hang out with my friends every chance I got. I would spend hours playing with my hair, makeup, or doing my nails (stupid young me...think of all the books you could have been reading!!!). I still read occasionally. The Twilight series happened during my high school days. And I also read The Host by Stephanie Meyer. But aside from that, I just kind of stopped reading books for fun.

This library is bomb!

Then college started. I wanted to get back into reading in college, but I literally had no time. I graduated in two and a half years with my Bachelors so as you can imagine, I was swamped all the time. I took crazy course-loads every semester and was buried in schoolwork. After I graduated, I moved to Washington state and got my first big girl job. I still didn't read. I think it was because I kind of forgot what it was like to be able to read for sheer pleasure. About six months later, I decided that the company I was working for was way too unethical so I quit. And then the unemployment boredom started to hit. I turned to books. Only I didn't have very many here (most of my books are still in a box in Chicago). So I started re-reading some, but I was dying to get new ones. I couldn't buy new ones (*cough cough* unemployed...). I didn't know what to do.

I had literally forgotten that libraries existed. I have a really good friend who started badgering me to get a library card. I was on the fence. (What was wrong with me????) The only library I had been in for the last five years was the library at Northern Illinois University. Not much fiction going on in there. I guess I thought that the library wasn't going to have the books I wanted to read. I also kept saying how much I liked to own books. Which I still do, don't get me wrong. But I just kept coming up with excuse after excuse.

So one day, my friend loaned me a book she had borrowed from the library. I read it and then told her I would return it for her. I figured I was already at the library so I might as well go in and check it out. Did I step into a time machine? What happened to the little cards that you had to write your name on? People were just picking up books, scanning them at self-service screens and leaving! What was this magical place? I started to look through the YA book section and ended up with an armful of books. I walked up to the counter and asked to get a library card. Finally. Hallelujah.

My library! We even have a drive-thru!

It has changed my life. Second best decision I have ever made. Right after marrying my husband, Phil. Yeah, I went there. Now I could read whatever I wanted whenever I wanted! And I discovered that I could just request books online and then pick them up. I didn't even have to look through the shelves??? I was in heaven. I will never go back to not having a library card.

Okay, this got really long-winded. Sorry about that guys. Here are the reasons I feel that every book lover should have a library card:

• Read as many books as you want for free. (Do I need any more reasons?)

• The ability to read books that you are on the fence about without spending any money. 

• Discovering new books while browsing the shelves. 

• Deciding which books are really worth adding to your shelves. 

• Free books. (Did I already say this one? Who cares if I did, it's the only reason you need.)

What do you guys think about libraries? Leave me a comment below!