Today, I have to confess something.
I am in LOVE with libraries.
In today’s newsletter I’ll explain why.
If you already have a library card - you are off to a great start.
If you don’t already have a library card, it is my hope that by the end of this newsletter you’ll decide to get one. It’s literally one of the easiest things you can do.
The easiest investment
The only cost of a library card, is the time it takes to register for one. (<10 minutes)
Typically this process involves bringing a photo ID with your name and address stating your residence in the city (or even a piece of mail) in which you are trying to get a library card from. (Yeah… that’s really all it takes lol.)
Nowadays, your library card unlocks a bundle of things besides only books. Now your library card includes: online access to eBooks, digital streaming services like Hoopla, online databases and collections of records of local history.
Just last week, my library card came in quite clutch, giving me a way to watch the legendary: Avicii: True Stories documentary. Here is a link to my reflection on the flick.
Somehow, someway, there was no ability to watch this flick on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu or YouTube and yet my local library managed to hook it up.
Don’t doubt your library as a resource to keep up with what’s trending.
Not only does your library have an abundance of resources available for free, it also enables you to save a significant amount of $$$ on books. Using your library also promotes a lack of clutter due to having the forcing function of due dates for your borrowed materials.
One thing that my local library does is show the $$$ amount on the receipt saved from checking out a book there versus buying a book elsewhere. Typically the message looks like this: “You saved $23.99 by using your library today!” (pretty hype right?)
The inital goal I had set for reading was to read 50 books (in-full) before I graduated college.
Quickly I realized after buying the first few reads, that “dang, this is about to be an expensive goal”. Only until - I realized that wait… isn’t this what libraries are for?
“Adam, who at that time read 0 books in the previous 7 years versus Adam who has read 237 books the past 4-5 years. (You can see my list of completed reads here).” -
If you are an avid bookreader, as I am, this number easily equates a small fortune.
A hardcover book is on average worth $29.51 if you were to purchase it brand new.
$29.51 X 237 = $6,993.87 (money I would’ve spent on purchasing these books)
If you are looking to get started with reading more books, don’t order it through Amazon, pick it up from your local library.
As the great Benjamin Franklin once said: “A penny saved, is a penny earned”.
Visiting the Library
“If asked what the most beautiful word in the English, I would without hesitation give the word Library.” - Christopher Hitchens (From “Hitch-22”)
I’d have to agree with Mr. Hitchens. The reason being is rummaging among the shelves at the library is a magical place for discovery. A place of discovery for unique ideas, incredible historical figures, as well as developing a toolkit for understanding the place and time in which we are in historically.
The magic of the library was revealed to me once I had set the intent that I wanted to read more. I wanted this dedicated time to be spent reading books, away from a screen. The library was the perfect place for this.
The feeling of wandering aimlessly among books in an unfamiliar library is unparalled to any experience and it is my belief, impossible to replicate online.
Little by little, as we grow more accustomed to our library, it begins to feel more home-like. I think of my experience at my local library, to the point where I can proudly point out the books to myself - in which I have already read. All be it, that’s in the Computer Science, Technology, Business section… whereas, I am a complete stranger in the sci-fi section, as I seek to become more familiar amongst that neighborhood.
The library is in its sense, a city, in which it has it’s separate neighborhoods within. Broken down by topics. Broken down by authors. Broken down by individual books.
Visiting the library is in essence, like being a tourist of your own city. Only to realize that there is still way more left undiscovered. This is a fascinating discovery, and one that gets me geeked everytime I visit.
Timetraveling through literature
"I would read books late into the night with my own little desk lamp, and when I woke up, I would pick up where I left off, and keep going until the world interrupted me in some way." - @visakanv’s “📚 the library ethos”
The magic of being half-awake reading that same paragraph over-and-over, only to realize that you were actually asleep the past half hour.... and yet, jump back in right where you left off.
There is that special something that occurs when our imaginations are running around, thanks in due part to an authors lucidity with their words depicting fictional or previous worlds, as we pass between sleep and being engrossed in the text.
"What magical, intoxicating, mind-altering things books are - little packages of paper full of ordered squiggles, messages from one mind to another, sometimes across vast distances of time and space." @visakanv’s “📚 the library ethos”
I often feel the nights in which I read before bed, are the nights in which I cannot tell which one is the dream. The reality in which I woke up in the next morning, or the fabricated dream world influenced by the last words I read.
In other words, read and reflect on the world in which you hope to help create! There are always lessons to learn from fictional as well as historical precedents (places, time, figures & ideas) for what you are trying to do.
“I think of the person I have become, as well as the person I continue to strive to be, due to my incessant reading and reflecting on the words in which I read.”
I also think of the abundance of knowledge, wisdom, as well as insight I have received due to the luxury of a library card.
IF you are looking to improve any arena of your life and looking to better embrace our collective humanity, please my friend, consider getting yourself a library card. Your life may just change as a result of it.
Cheers to lifelong learning,
Adam Bartley
PARTING NOTE
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