I am about to lay down some real talk about something that I’ve become insanely passionate about recently. Are you ready for this? Are you sure? Okay. Here it is. It’s the library. (Or, if you live where I do, it’s the Library!)

Okay, here’s the deal, I grew up in the middle of nowhere. The closest town to where I lived, was also in the middle of nowhere. It was gorgeous, but there wasn’t much to it. If you didn’t live within city limits, you didn’t get to have a library card, and since I only lived within city limits for a couple of years when I was very young, I never really got to experience how cool a library could be until I was an adult. Which is a shame, because I really had a problem keeping myself in reading material when I was a kid.

In college I got well acquainted with our campus library. I used it a lot for research, and studying. However, I never visited the building for pleasure. It was a valuable resource, but that was it. I didn’t think about it unless I needed it. If we were going to put it in relationship terms, the library was my late night booty call when I realized I had a paper due the next day. It was a shallow relationship at best. At worst, I took advantage of the library without ever really getting to know it. (I should maybe send it an apology for treating it so thoughtlessly…)

Anyhow…

If you know me, you know I love books. I tore through my mom’s library, and had read every book by sometime early to mid high school, and then I started rereading everything in it again immediately. Once I got into college, my time was mostly taken up with the novels and textbooks I was reading for class, but when I left school, I had time for reading what I wanted again. So I started buying books whenever I had spare money. Then, when I didn’t have money, I would reread everything in my personal library again, and again. When I discovered ebooks, I began downloading things that were on sale, or free, and I got to feed my habit even more. During this time, I had friends tell me I needed to give a library card a shot, but it seemed inconvenient, and I ignored their advice.

(My Library! card is so cool. It’s the coolest.)

Then, recently, I wanted to read a book that I really didn’t want to buy. Last year at our library sponsored comic con, I had signed up for a library card, but then I had just put it aside and forgotten about it. Wanting to read this book, and not wanting to spend money on it, helped me remember that in the back of my wallet was stashed my possible solution, and I decided to get online to see if the Library! (seriously, our library has an exclamation point at the end, that’s how cool it is) had the book available. That’s when I first felt my heart beat pick up, and my palms get a little sweaty. Basically, that’s when I fell, hard and fast, in love.

It’s like I went to sleep 20 years ago, and just woke up in a new century. Did you know that libraries don’t just have card catalogs anymore?! They* have entire computer databases, where not only can you see which books your library has to offer, but where you can actually put them on hold! You don’t even have to leave your couch. It’s amazing! Then, the library texts you when your books are ready. They. Text. You.

I’m sure I’m just way behind the times, and you all know how great libraries are already, but just in case, I wanted to write this and make sure. Because it turns out that they are the best places on the planet. They are the giant building you want to marry and live with forever. Also, they smell delicious. Like books. And dreams.

So, yeah… Libraries! Who knew?! (Lots of people. That’s who. And they tried to tell me, but I need to discover things in my own time. Okay? It’s just how I am. Ask my mom.)

I’d love to expound more on my burgeoning love, and wax poetic about covers, and bindings, but I have to go bury my nose in a book now. A book from the Library! Because library books are the best. And now that I know, there is no way anyone could ever convince me otherwise.

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*Okay, maybe not all of them do, buy mine does, and my library is pretty much the only one I’m familiar with…