I don’t remember my first books but I remember coming home with a pile of books and feeling as though I had discovered treasures upon treasures. I loved my Nancy Drew mysteries. I am still a reader usually reading three at a time. Currently: Passages by Connie Willis; Henry V by Dan Jones; and, Murder At The Beacon Bakeshop by Darci Hannah (my cozy mysteries just before lights out are my memories of Nancy Drew).

Growing up in small town Iowa, I remember a book I checked out many times from the small local library: Borrowed Angel by Marguerite Hamilton. Real life story of a chronically ill child and her mother’s efforts to save her. It’s out of print now.

Ended up buying the book so I can read at my leisure.

'How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack,' by Chuck Sambuchino

Very informative. One can never be too careful!

It was a sanctuary for me. I remember reading a book on The Beatles; I think it was called The Boys From Liverpool.

when my mom took me to the big library downtown with all the steps. Back then I loved biographies of famous people. Authors Madeline L’Engle and Beverly Cleary were favorites back then, too.



Now my adult son is an IT Specialist at the same library! (newer building)

I remember my 2nd neighborhood library. I lugged home a big book on clothing through the ages in my early teens. Lots of illustrations!

In NYC we have the great Lion's library. And the big Mid-Manhattan across the street from that; which now has a great roof top area, and café .

I lived about about 8 blocks away from Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn for about 8 yrs; and the Brooklyn Central library was across from that. Big fancy bronze doors with brass decorations! A big plaza which they redid w cool little water fountains. Big ?2-3 story lobby with display cases for rotating art works!

And now in The Bronx I haven't gone to my 2nd neighborhood local library (went to my first one) bc by bus not too far away I can go to The Bronx Central library. Waaay bigger!

For now since covid I've been getting
e-books from our library. I will get back to the actual library soonish.

is where I found Herman Hesse and Sinclair Lewis.

I must have read each book 10 times!

The librarian I checked out…we dated for a couple months. The library was my peaceful place…before meditation.

teach you the Dewey Decimal System, MiHale?

I remember reading the abridged version while in college. It was very hard to get through in the beginning. The first 30ish pages took a few days with a bit of rereading to remember all the different characters. the next 90 some pages I finished in an afternoon and evening. The final 700 I made into a 22 hour marathon with a couple bathroom and food breaks.

Haven't seen you for a bit. Started getting worried.

"A Wrinkle in Time."

I'm there every week. I request a hold for everything through the website, either from my local system or the interlibrary loan network, then I drop in to pick-up and return my items, with a quick perusal of the New Arrivals section before I check out.

Lately I've been reading everything written by David Grann. I just finished The Lost City of Z this afternoon. The Wager has been my favorite, so far. I've got two or three more on my list to go.

... we had a special section of the library (within the children's section) where they kept the ITA books.

My local library is about two blocks from where I live so it's convenient for me. Over the past 15 years, I've checked and read out over 700 books in hardback, paperback, of Ebooks.

I had to renew it; it took me six weeks but I went through that book and taught myself how to think.

That was over thirty years ago; to this day I tell young folks (when I can find those who are willing to listen) that if you choose not to go to college, your public library is the next best thing.

Also, the novels of David Weber, a kind of pulpy military science fiction writer whose works are tremendous fun if not technically literature. There's the Honor Harrington series, followed by the Safehold series. Comes to thirty books or so, perhaps more, and I didn't pay for a single one. Love your library!

I read every book in the kids side and then the librarians let me read all the biographies on the adult side. I don't think they knew how racy The Agony and the Ecstasy or Lust For Life were. But they were biographies and they said I could read them.😊

and even at baby showers

A wonderful book for a young pyromaniac.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drury_Clark

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
by Edwin A. Abbott

I inherited Library Card #2 at my Podunk Carnegie Library from my grandmother and have put it to good use. I have a wonderful relationship with my librarians.

Boys, Tom Swift, Doc Savage, many others. And then I stumbled on Lord of the Rings and fell into that worm hole.

I had seen the movie Tales of Terror at the Paramount Theater during the Saturday horror show and wanted to read "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", which had been dramatized in the movie. Waiting for our mom to pick us up, my sisters and I ended up in the lobby of the Queensbury Hotel and I passed the time reading that gloriously horrifying book in the fancy surroundings, which seemed almost a subversive activity. I knew that Poe was supposed to be an important writer but I was tickled that despite his importance his stuff was also fun to read.

Most likely because it wasn't in walking distance.


My mom was in the position where she purchased me books and so I became a book reader with my own personal at home library.


I remember having First Time Books, Scholastic and Please Read To Me that were large and paperback for early readers. Some of them included Berenstain Bears, Barbar and Richard Scarry BusyTown type of books.


I remember a book fair in the 5th grade at school and my mom purchased me the set of Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" yellow 9 book boxed set that was printed sometime in the 1970's. My mom helped me order and buy books from the Scholastic order forms as well.

Of course I used the library at all the schools that I attended.

The last time I was in a public library a few years ago I was returning an almost due book. The book was "The Other Mrs. Kennedy" by Jerry Oppenheimer. I placed the book in the return bin and I was walking towards the shelves. I walked past this guy who was speaking to another guy and he said, "No one wants to work anymore."

Let me say, I wasn't at all quiet about mocking this guy and his idiotic comment. I've never returned to the public library after this incident, it's roughly been about 3 years or so now.

I honestly didn't know that these people visited public libraries truth be told.

Spend hours there looking up local history and maps. Also newspapers and magazines.
I have a Tribal Card from when I lived in Tribal Lands. Good at many libraries in the state.

The local library was my refuge as a girl, and still is as a 70 year old woman. I just checked out the latest David Baldacci book.

I was nine years old, my nun told me I couldn't read it for a book report my mom argued with the nun and I got to use it for my book report. It was just put out in other languages (German being one of them) so I was able to read it. I was deeply enamored of Kennedy as a young boy, so read every thing I could about him. BTW got an A- on the report

Comes to the tiny village I live near on Tuesdays twice a month. Sets up in AM in parking lot of Tribe IHS clinic and senior center then afternoon goes to parking lot of the elementary school. I go to senior meals several times a week, most consistently on mobile library days. Gets my jones out for looking at shelves of books.

Recently finished reading Walter Mosely's East Rawlins and Leonid McGill books published since 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mosley

So far in 2026 also borrowed the History of Klamath County (California county disbanded in 1874) that was then checked out by several others at senior meals. Realized in recent years that could order books not actually in the mobile library. In 2025, borrowed a bio of Janis Joplin, Chaos (a newish book about Manson), books by Umberto Eco and Jonathon Lethem and books by Raymond Chandler and Dashell Hammett (I like old detective novels).

The woman employed by Humboldt County library is a saint. When the mobile truck was in shop for repairs, she came in her personal vehicle with boxes of books and several card tables to set up shop. I live more than 80 miles from a bookstore. Can't ever move because have so many books, few purchased after 2003.

for as long as I can remember. When my boys were little, I took them to the library regularly to get books.
Before we moved to Chapel Hill, NC in 2000, one of the things on my checklist was to visit the local library. It definitely passed muster, being in a college town.
I now get books from the Durham library system since I live in Durham County. When I lived in downtown Raleigh, there was a branch within walking distance of my high rise apartment.
Right now, I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I recently finished Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt that has been made into a movie starring Sally Field, which will soon be released. It was an amazing story.

Which brought over books from the city's main library. I was in 7th grade and found, Planet of the Apes. Delightful !

back when that was a very new thing. bookmobile stopped weekly, and used to catch them. they had ya books, but if i didnt find something, i’d ask and they’d bring it the next time.

I spent my early years in the USA with baseball stars, great lawyers, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and of course, Encyclopedia Brown.

my tiny town did not have a library, but I could go to the town with a library and check out books. I loved that old place. it was in a very old building which was a bank at one time. It was robbed by Jesse James, and the bullet holes on the exterior are still there. It was the Southern Deposit Bank for those who know.

Anyway, it smelled like a library, had old wooden floors and a librarian who may have been 80 years old.

So anyway, since somebody was always going into town to shop or something, I could usually get there every two weeks, peruse the shelves and check out a stack of books. There were always a few Nancy Drew books included. In the summer I would spend a week with one of my aunts and walk up to the library the first day, check out a load of books, read them and when I returned them, get my two week supply.

It was wonderful.

We also had the Bookmobile lady who visited our house every 2 weeks and she would take back our finished books.