Librarys and Memories

We are lucky enough to have a good public library system within our town.
We have 1 main central library and then 4 smaller suburb locations.
These are all the same company and so we have the pleasure of being able to visit any of the sites to return, order and borrow our books.

We have the normal library charges, you pay to reserve a book, there is a small fine if you are late returning a book, you pay a small charge to borrow DVD's and movies etc and they also have the latest books available on 1 week hire at $5 as they are the most popular ones. There is no charge to borrow the books.

So we use the library a lot, the boys love going there and they have a love of books, well they like the books but I know their love for them is growing and this I am grateful for. I want them to understand the joy books can bring into your life, I want them to know that reading is a great thing to be able to do.

However last week the City Council were discussing how they could save millions of dollars and one area they looked at was the library service.
They wanted to put a charge on all books borrowed, they want to close the libraries on a Monday and they want to reduce the already scant staff to even less.
They feel this would save plenty of money and no one would mind!
I think not, the library is somewhere people can go when they have 30 minutes spare in town, I love the fact people can borrow books free and given this current life at present I like that fact people are still reading books when they can't afford to buy them.

So do I like this idea? Not one little bit.

I am also lucky enough to have a great medical library at the hospital. Now I wasn't sure how important this was going to be to me until I started my study this year when I realised that they had the books that would help me answer my essay questions.
They don't have any charges and even email you when books are due back, in fact they will even email you and let you know that as no one is waiting for the books then they have renewed them and they are now due on the new date. All without you asking them too do this! I am truely thankful for that, because this week they let me know I had books outstanding and I was pretty sure I had returned them 2 weeks ago after finishing my essay, but a little check at home proved this wrong and hey presto I had 4 books of theirs.
Really thank ful to them for checking with me.

My memory of libraries takes me all the way back to when I was about 9 or 10. We lived in Kuwait at the time and I was going to the local (only) English School.
We had a little library at the end of the hall that was seperated by a curtain.
One day I had to go to the library to find a book and at the time I decided that I would just stand on the bottom shelf to reach the book I wanted instead of getting a little chair.
Well unfortunately the shelf collapsed and all the book fell off!
I got sent to the Headmistress who had me retell her what had happened and how it was going to get fixed.
I remember feeling about this big and a little less more in front of Mrs Bird, whilst I stood there and said sorry for breaking the shelf.

So even though I still use libraries, I have learnt that if you can't reach a book, then get a chair or someone else to reach it instead.

Authors

I have found the public library again, I go through phases where I don't go very often and don't even come away with books, other times I am on the website reserving books in the next series I want from a particular author.

My latest author is a very easy read, nothing too hard to pick up or even put down. Everything is light hearted and as always with me, family romance is the main theme.

Debbie Macomber is the latest and she even has a website which I have looked through, finding out about all her books and what order certain ones come in so I read them correctly.

There is nothing I hate more than finding you have read a book in the wrong order, so I am always very careful when taking books from the library to ensure that it is not book #4 of 8 or anything stupid like that.

So I did sign up to updates from her website, just the usual sort of thing, what book is next out in paperback, what her latest book is and how other books have faired in the publics eye. Sometimes that influences whether I read the book or not but more often I read it anyway.

So imagine my surprise when I received a letter from them the other day.

Now don't get all excited, it was nothing but a flyer and 2 bookmarks, but it was fun to receive, especially as they are all based in the US and I am down here in New Zealand.

Interesting to read what is happening with the latest book coming out etc.
Wondering how long it will take for the local library to have them in and then also wondering how many copies they will get.

So I have to go now as I need to check out the library website and see what si available, catch you later.

Library Books

I like to read, although I am quite fussy about what type of book I read, it usually has to be a romance novel or family saga, unfortunately the 'Classics' have still not got into me just yet.

We use the local library all the time, well at least I do, seeing as I always take out at least 4 books when ever we go there. Steve usually takes 1 or 2 because he only reads at night just before going to sleep.
Plus we have also made sure that the boys are into reading, well we hope we have instilled into them the joy of books, they love having a story read each night and are happy to look at books before going to sleep, so hopefully when it comes to being able to totally read for themselves they will discover the full joy of totally immersing oneself in a book and the wonders that they can hold.

If I find an author I enjoy reading then I will try to read all books that are written. So to help me with this I have a notebook by my bed. I have alphabetised the book and as I read a book by an author then I write down under the correct letter who the author was and what the book was.
The idea being that I should really take this notebook with me when ever we go to the library and then if I find a book I am interested in I can look to see if I have read the book.

I also write down in there under the author any other book they have written, so if I am looking for a book to read I can search for a particular book as well. When I have read a book, then I will tick it off in my notebook. Sometimes I have even marked next to it if it was a really bad book so I know never to read that one again!
I have had this system going for nearly 13 years now and it is really quite useful.
My main author's I seem to read all of are:

• Danielle Steel
• Debbie Macomber
• LaVryle Spencer (although she is not writing anymore)
• Barbara Delinsky

As you can see, nothing really heavy, just your typical family saga romance.

There are several libraries around Hamilton, all branches of the main one downtown. However there are 4 that are no more than 15 mins away from us.
They have an awesome internet system as well so I am able to search for a book online at home and reserve if I want for $1.50. I can then nominate which branch I wish to collect from. I have also been known to see a book I want to borrow online and actually drive to that branch to collect it, usually lumping it in with an errand I have to run on that side of town.
So I would say we are really utilising our local library well at the moment and they in turn are being very good for our family.

Books

Lucky for us, although totally all our own doing, the boys love books.
This was always something important to me, I wanted them to have that ability to loose themselves in the imagination of the books.
Ok they are still not reading on their own, but they have a love of books and so I am hoping it will continue.
Ben is at that age where he is just starting to consider books that are not mainly pictures. Maybe even books that have a chapter or 2 in them, rather than a book that takes 5 minutes to read.
At the library today I managed to find one or 2 books that are easy readers with about 6 chapters in them.
Ben and I have read the first chapter and already I have managed to get his imagination running overtime!
He has understood everything that has happened in the first chapter and he is thinking about where the story could go from here and what might happen.

We will have fun tomorrow when we read the 2nd chapter.

I also managed to get a few books to read, which will of course be read before the 4 week loan period is finished.
I did however, just as we were walking out the door of the library, find myself a book that doesn't take too much reading.
It is a book all about Art Quilts.

'500 Art Quilts'

An Inspiring Collection of Contemporary Work

It is a fairly new book published this year and it is amazing.

The details people go to with material etc to make a quilt for the wall is just mind blowing.

Now these are quilts for display, not for your double bed in the spare room!

This book is making my imagination run wild, wild with ideas on pictures I would love to see in quilt, although I am not sure my imagination runs wild enough to know what products etc to use to create something like this, maybe it is all trial and error at the end of the day?

Although having seen some of these quilts up close at a quilt show, it just takes a lot of talent with using material.

Yes, for those that haven't seen this picture before, that is a quilted book that hangs out from the wall.

Simply amazing, aren't some people just so clever.