Middle of National Library Week

Does this picture not fill you with bubbling delight?

I wish every library was like this. This week is National Library Week, so I thought it only right to take a bit of time and gush about my local library.

I've lived in this town for many years now, and our library isn't the biggest around, but I can usually find something to read that I haven't before. In more recent years, I haven't gone as often as I want--not the least of which is because I own plenty of books that I haven't read yet, and I really shouldn't add to that TBR pile with more books--but the past few months I started up again, every three weeks or so (the length of time we can borrow books here).

Library-related tangent: Before moving to this town, we were in military housing for four years, and there was a small library there as well. I think in some ways, I was too young to know what I wanted and the shelves, which seemed so tall and full, were overwhelming. I didn't know what to pick in the children's section and thought the best thing to do would be to wander over to the adult books. I ended up in non-fiction, pulling out a book on spiders. It became the book I grabbed whenever I didn't know what else to get. I might have read a few pages here and there, but mostly I looked at the pictures. That library was also a part of a community center, but my siblings and I were apparently too young to play pool. :(

/tangent

It happens with enough frequency to be a pleasant surprise that isn't entirely surprising, that my local library gets new releases shortly after their release.

That right there is what I think libraries have the most to offer--I am a bookwhore, a bookhoarder, and a packrat in general. Sure, I find new series in the library, and am compelled to buy the rest because they don't have the other books, but more times than not, books I want to read, but dread spending the hardcover price (may YA fantasy titles fall into this category), suddenly appear in the new fiction shelf. Then I do my little happy dance in my head, throw in a ~happy wiggle~ and a cheesy grin when I head to the circulation desk.

These are the days when I love love LOVE the invention of libraries.

Hug a book, people,

Sabrina

More about being a Reader versus a Writer

But first, briefly: The week I took off leading up to Easter--I didn't make the (probably unreasonable) goals I wanted to reach, but I got a lot more done in those seven days than I had for most of the previous 33, in terms of editing. It is clear I still find it much easier to write (and edit to a smaller extent) when there's an external time-pressure, be it having less time because of a job or school, or deadlines when a professor of beta-reader is expecting to have the pages in hand.

If I know someone is waiting, I stay on the ball better. Left to my own devices, with essentially nothing but my own intentions to structure my day, I flail a bit.

But I did make progress, so that improves my frame of mind.

On to today's topic: Am I the Only One This Applies to?

I know there are some people that can reads multiple books simultaneously, while others need to start and finish one book, then start the next. I, on the other hand, do some sort of combination of the two. I start a couple of books at relatively the same time. Usually read a couple pages to a chapter or two, and then my attention hones in on one specific book, and I will read that one until it's done, then go back to the others, read pages here and there, until another book grabs my whole attention. [Another issue related to this is when I have a bunch in my TBR pile, and I want to read them all first, but this tends to devolve into the above.]

Here's the thing, it isn't that I like the other books any less than the first one that really grabs me. And there can be some writers or books that I love, but I can put it down for some reason, and it'll be weeks before I pick it up again. Most people might say that means I don't like the book, but I do. I just, lose the thread of it. Ex/A book my sister borrowed from the library about writing and psychology. I started to read it, then it was time to turn in, so I went and borrowed it on my own card. Even reborrowed it on my card, but I have just not been able to pick it back up. It's incredibly interesting, and appeals to two of my favorite subjects, but I put it down to finish up something else that was due back at the library, and couldn't pick up the thread of it.

Am I just weird?

~shrugs~ Just a thought I had yesterday, because this psych/writing book is due back at the library again and I haven't finished it. I'll turn it in today, and maybe borrow it some time down the road, and hopefully I "be ready" to read it again. Just one of the strange things my head does that I don't necessarily agree with.

Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina