The Awesomeness of libraries

     I have been away from libraries for awhile. I had given my allegiance to bookstores, pouring hard-earned post-high school and college job dollars into books that I would keep, neglecting my local library, mostly because my local library hadn't been that great. But now the time has come to re-embrace libraries.
     I guess stubbornness kept me away, and the idea of building my own personal library. Visions of walnut shelves circling around a room pulled from my daydreams, and I needed something to store on those shelves, right? So I bought books. I bought and read, and bought and read some more. I wanted to hundreds, no thousands, no tens of thousands of books at my disposal, complete with a wooden reading stand with a large unabridged dictionary open on it, an antique leather chair, and a Victrola playing classical music, complete with its recording imperfections, in the background.
     Alas, such daydreams are hard to realize, and I've come to understand something fundamental. Books are heavy. I think I shall put aside my growing personal library just because of logistics until I have the actual room to fill them with.
     In the interim, I am rediscovering my local libraries, and tapping them for more than just books, but audio books, DVDs, a quiet work space, free wifi, and just the atmosphere of and presence of so many books. It's a fun rediscovery, and now that card catalogs have gone by the way side, it's a little more accessible to find things, especially as many of them have put their collections on the web. So, I and everyone should return to the sheer rudimentary pleasure that is the library. And now, I need to pick out my next audio books for my next road trip.