To the Library!
April 22, 2010
My Writing Group went on a field trip recently- seeking inspiration, enjoying friendship and … yes, there may have been chocolate involved. One of the treasures we encountered were pockets and cards from library books. Remember these from your elementary school library? The names awkwardly yet carefully printed with HB pencil over several lines. They were at the wonderful little shop called The Regional Assembly of Text on Main Street in Vancouver.
I went to the library for the first time in several years the other day and discovered I had an unpaid fine. Egad how embarrassing. And then I held my breath … the fine? 60 cents. 60 cents!! I am afraid I tend to mostly purchase my books and occasionally borrow them from friends. I love independent bookstores and harbour a secret (not so much of a secret now apparently …!) desire to have my own bookstore one day. Remember Meg Ryan’s Shop Around the Corner in the movie You’ve Got Mail? Heaven! I confess though that books on occasion fall from the display at Costco into my cart – that buggy is so big it has its own gravitational pull. And I do spend an inordinate amount of time at Chapters because I love wandering the aisles and perusing the vast selection of titles in a variety of sections. Home decor, reference, fashion, sport, biography, business, magazines … like so many little book shops all together. Purchases at either of these “Big Box” options always makes me feel a bit disloyal though. So … how do you shop for books? Are you a library devotee? Is it used bookstores that you frequent? Are you in the next aisle over at Chapters? What’s your favourite indpendent bookstore? Were you a Grade 5 library monitor too? 
