Love is...

a stack of library books.

I vividly remember visiting the public library when I was a kid. I loved the quiet, the reverence for the books, the places the books took me. I remember loving to visit the library in school. Then college, though somehow all the required reading stole some of the joy of books. I think it was a solid year before I read anything other than magazines and those dreadful hospital policy & procedure manuals for my first nursing job.

But slowly, the love of books re-emerged. I started visiting the public library again, just wandering the aisles at first, then finally settling on a book. I sometimes had to limit myself- I read obsessively and will neglect other things in my life for the sake of finishing a well-written book. They have entertained me, moved me to tears, challenged my thinking and shaped who I am.

Then I had a child. And we read books. And she grew old enough to have opinions about books, so we started visiting our local library. Sometimes we go in with a topic for our book search, sometimes we go and simply pull interesting ones off the shelves. We've developed a relationship with the librarians who will sometimes suggest books because they think we'll enjoy them. They're usually correct. When Dillon commented once that girls couldn't be knights ( after seeing a picture of a girl in armour), the children's librarians had a list of "girl power" books to counter that assertation.

One of the first ways we dealt with getting Dillon ready for Corryn's surgery was to visit the library and ask for books about kids- specifically siblings- having to be in the hospital. It's the same way we helped prepare her for having a sibling. It works beautifully.

Thomas Jefferson was once quoted as saying, "I cannot live without books."

I understand that sentiment completely.

Happy Love Thursday- the last official one as it turns out.