26 August 08 - 18:52
Laundry Libraries
I read a lot. Sometimes I read a book a day. Some books take longer. Some days I'm too busy to read. But, I read a lot.I got my first library card before I started school. My Mom still remembers hearing me arguing with the librarian as to whether or not I could possible write my whole name which I had to do to qualify for the card. Once Mom hurried over from her own search for a good book and assured the librarian I could, indeed, write both my first and last name, I got my own library card. I've had a library card ever since. I even had one when Dave was in the Army because there was a library at each post where we were stationed.
Now I don't have one. You have to have an address to have a library card. Of course, I have an address in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but we are there for such short periods of time I'm afraid we'd drive off with a pile of library books only to learn I'd done so when I got notice of a huge fine. So, for the first time in more than 55 years, I don't have a library card.
What I have instead are book swaps. Mostly these are in campgrounds. Some are official and located in the campground office/lounge areas. These tend to have several shelves of books. Some are less official and located in the laundry area. These tend to have two or three books that were just left on the table by people who had finished reading them and didn't want to haul them further. When we were in Idaho, I swapped some books with my sister-in-law. There are bookstores that swap paperbacks but they don't tend to swap one for one so I haven't resorted to that yet since it would mean reducing my inventory available for swapping.
I carry four books with me in the RV which means I need to find trades fairly often. We've been in a motel for a couple of weeks now while we got our RV repaired then traded it in for a different one. Yesterday I discovered the laundry room here had three books on the table. One of them I'd never read before. So now I have a new book to read and the next person who checks out this semi-official library has a chance to read a good Tony Hillerman mystery.
I hope someone else does some swapping soon. Otherwise, I might have to break down and buy another book. Or maybe I'll sneak into a local campground and trade some books. There's a campground not far from here we've camped at before that has a large selection. Surely, if I went on Labor Day weekend, they'd be so busy they wouldn't remember I'm not actually camped there right now. Besides, wouldn't the owner like to find a new book herself?
TTYL,
Linda
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