Tuesday Around Town

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I promised I'd come back in two weeks for another glimpse around the town I call home—Collierville, or lovingly known as The Ville. 

In the first installment of this series, I wrote about my home away from home—my beloved church. You can read all about it here.

This week I'm sharing about my other favorite place in town and additional home away from home—our local library! 

(I love the little picnic area pictured above that runs to the side of the library building.)

Here is the front—it's not a great picture, but you get the general idea. I am a HUGE advocate for using the local library, friends. I know not every town has one as nice as this one pictured, but even if you have to drive a town or two over, I cannot recommend joining the one closest to you enough. It has saved me literally thousands of dollars by borrowing books from the library. I love that when I check out there, on the receipt it shows me how much that book would have cost had I bought it in a store. If you are local to me and need some help with this, I would be willing to meet you there to help you get started!

Did you know that anyone can join any library? If you don't live in the actual town, you can pay a small yearly fee and join that way. I think this makes an excellent gift idea for the readers in your life and it's my favorite gift to give. We do this every year for my step-dad Bill. It's nothing expensive and he has used it for years and years now. He loves it and I love that he loves this place as much as I do. It's my happy place, but it's his as well and that's one thing I love having in common with someone. 

I never go and just get one book, I get a whole stack of them, because I never know if I'm going to love it or hate it, and because I often try new authors. This is my favorite kind of thing to get lost in.

Now I never thought I'd be saying this, but I no longer read physical books. I am not done with them forever and ever, but my sweet hubby bought me a Kindle over the summer for my beach trip with girlfriends and I've not looked back since. I love the backlight and that I can adjust the font size. It's a paperwhite, so there is zero glare, which is perfect for reading outside.

Even though I read on this Kindle now, I still use my library! I have the app "Libby" on my phone and I connected my library card number to the app, so I when I read books on this device, they're still considered borrowed library books. I wouldn't be able to use that app on this if I didn't have a library card. I think? I'm not sure. I also have the "Hoopla" app that works the same way, but it's not an app that Kindle supports. If I were reading on a tablet of some sort, I'd be able to use that app as well.

When the boys were little, one of our favorite things to do was go to the library. We went to story hour and they'd walk away with so many books in their stack that they couldn't carry them all in their arms. They all used to love to read, but I don't know what happened. As a homeschooling family, the library also helped us out with things we would go and get to supplement our curriculum. 

Basically it was a great place for them to explore and sometimes run off some extra energy around the lake in the back of the library. 

I can smell this picture, can't you? There is nothing that is more beautiful to me than rows and rows of organized library books. (Notice I said one key word there—organized.)

Aside from the actual library, there is also a small bookstore inside the door called Friends Again Bookstore. I love it in there as well, but I don't make it there very often. They sell books and movies/shows on DVD. I would love to join the book club there that they offer, but for now it's over Zoom only. I applied there recently, but the job position was filled. I'll be honest, though...it's kind of my dream job to work here. I know so many people in our little town and I love to read so much that I know I would be an asset to them, should I ever decide to apply there again.

Have I inspired you to go to your local library yet? You should! I can remember loving a library/bookstore ever since I was a very young girl. Our old library was off of our town square and I remember going there with my mom at a young age. I have loved to read since I was in the first grade, and had a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Shaw who instilled in me this lifelong love. Growing up, my mom was also a good example of this, because she also loves to read and I often witnessed her sitting with a good book. Once I was older, we often traded books back and forth and I still love to do that with her. One thing I know—if you read in front of your kid and make sure they have lots of choices of books to choose from pretty often, you'll have a reader on your hands. (In most cases this is true...mine are the exception and I'm rolling my eyes as I write that.)

Speaking of books, if you missed out on yesterday's blog post, you can click here to read about the books I read in September. 

Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.