I like books. This is no secret to anyone who knows me even a little bit; one step into my dorm room and you're faced with a wall of books I have yet to read. There's another stack in my closet, books that I've gotten just this month and that I have yet to integrate into the wall. There's a stack on top of my dresser of the books that I've read just that week. Schoolbooks piled underneath my CD collection. If you were to go back to my room back at my parent's house, you're faced with even more books. Boxes upon boxes wrapped up in plastic wrap and put in the attic, because I have so many that there's just not room for them downstairs anymore.
I used to use the library a lot. When I was younger, before I'd discovered the joys of ThriftBooks or spending every single cent you make towards books. When the only times I'd really ever buy books would be going to the thrift store and nabbing a Baby Sitter's Little Sister or Ghosts of Fear Street book. When going to the library and getting as many books as possible — my mother made me stop at ten, stating that I "couldn't possibly read more than ten books a week" (Fun Fact: I could) — and speeding through them so quickly that I was quizzed on them after reading them, because she didn't believe that I was reading them that quickly.
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I've gone back a few times, nabbing a few books maybe one week, saying that, now that I'm living in town, I'll be able to go back and return them in a timely manner, that now that I don't live 20 miles out of town, there's no reason not to use it. And it's a good idea, to use libraries — they've generally got what you want, and if you don't have to buy it, hey, that's cool. But for some reason, I can't do it. Maybe it's because I've got seventy books on my floor waiting to be read, but library books just don't get read. And if they do get read, I'll end up feeling guilty about not reading the ones that have been sitting on my floor for months. So when it comes to actually reading library books, I tend to... sometimes just skip it. I'll end up having to force myself through it at least for 15, 30 minutes at night, and then it takes me too long to read a book in general, and then I end up not enjoying it quite so much.
But I do still love the library. Even if I'm not planning on taking out books, just walking through the rows upon rows of books is something that I really like — seeing a weird title and having to pull the book off the shelf, even if it's a subject that doesn't normally interest you. And the thought of so many books in one place - to be honest, it does the opposite effect than what it should do — instead of wanting to go to the library more, it makes me want to buy more books so that I can have my own library.
I do think that working in a library would be something fun. Even the menial tasks, the inventories and the reshelving books, is something that I don't think I'd mind. Dealing with library patrons can't be any worse than, say, dealing with Arby's patrons, and being surrounded by books for a job sounds like something that would be pretty cool. And, hey, maybe it would make me finally want to do library things rather than buying a ton of books a month, because my wallet cannot take that anymore.
I don't know if I will end up using the library more. I'm sure I'll have a few weeks where I'll get spurred into a library kick and I'll take out books and voraciously read them and get through them and then I'll come back and eventually I'll slow down and be halfway through one when they're due and end up slogging them back to the library unread, my book wall growing and looming over me, because that's what's happened every other time. But at least I can give it a try.
