Library Life

I'm a part-time librarian, and I love it.  For starters, my job keeps me sane; when I'm having depression I can still make myself get ready and go to work.  On my bad days, if I didn't have the job I'd sit home and sink farther into it.  But the best thing about my job is that it lets me be around books. I love books more than almost anything, except of course my family.  And sometimes, even them.  Not really, of course, but I would rather spend time readin than anything else, period.  Is that bad?

When I was a kid I always had my nose in a book.  I took the bus a lot (I grew up in the city; mass transit was the only way to get anywhere, other than by walking.  A lot.), and could read while I rode.  I paid the price with a headache and nausea, but it was so worth it.  Nancy Drew and those cute Hardy Boys spent a lot of time with me in my younger years.  My cousing Michelle once said, "you read too much; you have a problem.  You should get help."  That made me laugh, because it was so crazy--there was no such thing as reading too much!  I had to consider the source--a middle child of 4 that hated books, and myself an only child.  Just in case she ever reads this, I need to mention that she grew up into a wonderful accomplished woman with a degree from a major university and is a business owner.  I don't want to leave any possible wrong bad impressions of my beautiful cousin.  But this isn't about her, it's about books.  And me.  But back to her statement; can a person actually spend too much time reading?  I still don't think so, but not with as much conviction as I had when I was younger. 

I work three days a week, for up to 14 hours.  It isn't a lot, but it's spread out over the week, so it seems like more than it is.  And while I'm there I get to see books go past me, and I think, "do I want to read that? Does it sound good?  Does it come in large print or for my Kindle?"  Yes, those are my actual thoughts.  I have so many books on request that I will never get them all read.  Because I do spend time doing things besides reading.  Such as, I spend a significant amount of time putting ebooks on hold from the library, and getting them off hold and putting them on my Kindle.  I think I'm so slick, because I found that if they're on the Kindle and I turn off the internet I can keep them until I'm done reading them.  It's cheating, true, but I delete them as soon as I'm done, and I'm not keeping anyone else from having them, so I don't feel guilty.  The guilt comes in at the number of them that I have to read still.  I think I need to get a houseboat for the summer, so I don't have anything to do but read.  And wish that it had a potty.  Note to self:  don't get a houseboat unless it has a potty. 

I do a lot at work besides oogle books; I talk to people, I help them with their library needs, I do a lot of cargo (sending and receiving books from inter-library loans), and many other things.  But it all stems from a love of books, doesn't it?  As much as I love my Kindle, it's books that I love.  But my eyes are betraying me, slowly but surely, and it's too hard for me to read regular-print books now.  I can't read paperback at all, without a magnifyer, and that's quite awkward.  I only have one series that I'll read that way, and that's because I started the series years ago, before my eyes started to go bad.  I can do large print, but they are not always available, and often have longer waiting lists.  So I go with eBooks.

One other thing I do when I'm at work...I mentally write books.  I do that wherever I am, but for some reason I have a series of mysteries in my head surrounding a library.  I'll probably never write them down, but it's still a lot of mental fun.  Yup, that's me---all mental fun.