Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Further restoration

of my mental health: just finished Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel, Going Postal. Good stuff. Another find on the new-book shelf at the local public library branch: I often lurk there just after the new year to see if they've got any books that could be called new rather than just "new." (Public library users will take my point.) If I was a gazillionaire I would make a huge donation towards the book-buying budgets for the branch libraries, so that they'd really have all the exciting new books, and then give them enough money that they could stay open for 50 hours a week and have programs for kids after-school. I love libraries.

1 comment:

  1. Jenny, I couldn't agree with you more! I'm a big user of the local public library and would love to be able to give them every book ever published, or every spare cent I have. One fee I never mind paying is an overdue book fee, since it goes straight to the library. My local branch just opened a new (desperately needed) building in the midst of huge state budget cuts and since June 2004, the library has signed up over 800 NEW library card holders. The librarian told me that most of the new patrons didn't even know there was a local library until it moved into the new, more visible and accessible building. When I tallied up my books read for 2004, over 50 of the 69 were titles I had borrowed from the library. It's nice to find another dedicated library user in this world of Amazon, the Internet, etc.

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