As a book blogger I feel as though not using the library at least once in a while is a mortal sin. Personally however, I don’t know how true that actually is. When I was younger and a baby book lover I used my local library quite a bit. My love for reading hadn’t developed enough yet for me to be able to ask my mom to buy me books and so I went to the library to read books for free. That was fine for awhile until I would remember a favorite I had read and realize that I didn’t own it to reread it and taking a trip to the library again to reread that book would become troublesome.
Another issue I started to come across was forgetting a book I read and enjoyed almost completely. I would remember a part of the story I loved, but the title and the author would be forgotten, and as time wore on so would the most of the story. This would especially hurt me after a few years. I am very sentimental about my books and if I don’t remember them or can’t hold them in my hand, something feels off inside me.
Furthermore, I started to feel like I couldn’t properly support my favorite authors if I didn’t actually purchase their books. I wanted to be able to give back to the authors whose books fed my soul. Reading their books for free didn’t feel right. Although now I realize that giving back to an author could be in the form of a review this need to give back continued to distance me from using the library.
So I decided to slowly stop checking out books and started purchasing the books that I wished to read. After I started purchasing my own books, my personal library built and built until I had more books to read then I knew what to deal with. Now, my own library has made my need to go to my local one almost obsolete. Currently, I own 108 physical books, of which I have only read 61. This is because I have only been collecting for a year and a half thanks to a move where I had to give up all my books (a long story for another day (also a story explaining my 4 year reading gap). All this doesn’t count for my growing ebook collection of Netgalley advance readers copies that have increased the amount of books on my tbr I can actually read immensely.
Now, I feel like the point of a library is to get a taste for what you like so that you know what authors you wish to buy from and build a collection out of. I also feel like the library is more of a place to find subject knowlege from books you probably wouldn’t otherwise buy. For me the library is a symbol of education and research and that is what I would usually use it for now, but as I get older the library has become less and less appealing for me.
Libraries certainly played a very important part of my life when I was younger, but now I see that time as a stepping stone to get where I am now. As much as I miss the place that allowed me to read The City of Bones and introduced me to manga, I feel distant from it now. But I take pride in knowing that I am at the start of building my own. My dream is to have a full-fledged library of my own, complete with the books that attract my attention and make my heart race.
I know many of you do use the library and love it with a passion. I am sorry to say my own passion for libraries has somewhat dwindled in the way of pleasure reading as I’ve gotten older. This post is also not to say that libraries are not important, but rather explain why I, personally, do not use them much. I still have my own library card and I still hang out there on occasion, but checking out a book unrealated to research hasn’t happened in a very long time.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post. Do you use the library? What are your thoughts on this post? Libraries are very special places, what makes them special to you?
-Till next time!
The Book Raven 