I was excited to receive a link from my friend Lyndajo to an article that lists The Best Library In Every State. When I read that the designation in Idaho is the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, we made a point of visiting it on a trip to that neck of the woods.
“When you absolutely positively have to know, ask a librarian.” —American Library Association
I was delighted to discover that they carry my book, Note to Self: A Seven-Step Path to Gratitude and Growth.
“When I got my library card, that’s when my life began.”
–Rita Mae Brown
I was wowed by this set of moose bookends—they’re taller than I am!
“The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance.” —Libba Bray
October 14th was Indie Author Day. I hope you had the opportunity to attend the festivities at your local library; I had the privilege of speaking at the Boise Public Library that day.
“The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy, and community.” —Paula Poundstone
When was the last time you checked a book out from your library?
Tuesdays with Laurie 
How lovely it must be to see your book in a library ! I do love those bookends. I have a favourite book end that is in the shape of the front and back end of a bike. It’s very ‘Cambridge’. 🙂 Have a great Tuesday!
Sassy Brit — Your bookends sounds exactly like what you said, “Very Cambridge.” Ya gotta love it! 🙂
haha! Yes 🙂
Hi Laurie
Quite a long time ago.
I am almost fully digital now – do 90%+ of my reading on this screen.
Ted — I don’t know about libraries in New Zealand, but here in the states, many libraries let you “borrow” books on eReaders (i.e., Kindle). I haven’t tried it yet, but it seems like a pretty nifty way to go.
Many libraries will also let you borrow digital books using an app on your device such as Overdrive (I know the Coeur d’Alene Library does). Your library card lets you do a whole lot more these days than check out books. Portable Wi-Fi, ROKU’s, Play-Away’s, audio books (downloadable ones too), and so much more. Haven’t been to your local library in years? Make a point to visit again and see what’s new.
Mary — You bring up a great point about libraries offering eBooks to borrow on your eReading devices. Thank you! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed your visit, Laurie, and I love those bookends!
I am afraid I can’t remember the last time I borrowed a book from a library, but used to do it weekly when my son was little, must be 15 years or so.
Fatima — As a Nomadic globe trotter, I wonder if you could even get a library card? Here in the states you have to prove residency, and it can’t be with a post office box; it has to be with a physical street address. Interesting!
I doubt it, but I am happy with my kindle. I saw a glass cabinet in a village a few days ago where you could borrow a book and the return. Should I gave stayed longer, I might have.
It’s been a while since I borrowed a book from a library. I’ve donated some, recently, but I also do most of my reading on-line (and as I’m about to move to another country, I’m trying to find book homes for many of my paper books).
Great library!
Olga — I bet there’ll be many hands that shoot straight up in the air (me, me!) when you announce you’ve got books to give away. I applaud that you’re finding good homes for them 🙂
My library card never leaves my wallet unless I’m checking out a book which is about every two weeks. RIght now 2-3 books are on hold waiting for me to pick up. I’d be lost without the fabulous Jacksonville Public Library. Though I have many digital books on my iMacKindle, I like the tactile experience of holding a book, such a cozy thing.
Marian — Because I travel so often, I also have a bevy of digital books. But like you, nothing beats the smell and feel of a physical book! 🙂
I go to the library at least once a week Laurie . I need a trolley to carry my books home and someone else’s head to remember when to take the back . The library has been santurary to me I adore it . Love the moose bookends and fab to see your book up there where it belongs my sweet .
I do apologise about last week I missed your blog and Marian’s I must have been on another planet or something 🤣
Cherryx
Cherry — I love what you said: “The library has been a sanctuary to me, I adore it.” I know exactly what you mean! 🙂
I can imagine your excitement at seeing your book in this beautiful library. I gave a talk (about publishing a children’s book) in June to a CA library in the town I lived in for 20 years. Even though I no longer live there, they have my three books in their ‘Local Authors’ section, which warms me all over. AND my books are in the regular section of the library also. I read a library book every week. In our (local) Massachusetts library network, I can order any book I want on-line, and then choose the library I want to pick it up from (there’s a choice of over 10 libraries). So helpful! I choose a different one every week, so I’m visiting a different town’s library and getting to know it. Libraries are civilization. Libraries prove we are thoughtful, curious, intelligent beings. xo
Pamela — You are oh-so-RIGHT! “Libraries are civilization. Libraries prove we are thoughtful, curious, intelligent beings.” Amen, siSTAR!
Those bookends are wonderful, Laurie. We swap books out at work. Luckily, I work with two other ladies who are also avid readers, so we have our own lending library. I do patronize our Library Book Sales, though. The most fun to immerse myself in rooms full of books and magazines….my idea of heaven.
LoisaJay — How COOL that you and your work buddies have your own lending library. I love that idea!
It works for us, Laurie!
We have a beautiful little library here on Beaver Island, and I visit it regularly. I don’t check out books as frequently as I used to, but love to browse the new releases and read the boo reviews.
Cindy — I’m glad you’re a regular at your library. I can’t think of anything more fun that browsing through books, Books, BOOKS galore! 🙂
I have become a bit of a library lost user statistic in recent years Laurie. Except for hanging art on the walls of some grand libraries like the Emily Carr Library in Victoria B.C. and our small Mayne Island library, I have taken to purchasing new and used books or reading online books rather than being responsible for a library book I must take good care of and return – with no notes in the margins. 😉 Yet, I love to go to libraries and will wonder the shelves reading a page here and there and just enjoying the smell of books and the rustle of people reading, a cough here, a shift in a chair there. In the fall of 2018 I have another solo exhibition in a lovely new library on Galiano Island with spacious walls and gorgeous light! When I was accepted for the show by the selection committee, I was told that they seldom host off island artists. So, I am doubly honoured to be accepted and to have my paintings again hanging out with people reading and studying.
Terrill — I’m so excited that you were selected by the library on Galiano Island for a solo exhibition in the fall of 2018. That is fantastic. CONGRATULATIONS!
(psst… I like to write in the margins, too)
I’m a library junkie so sometimes just have to go hang out there and smell the books. One thing I love about our library system is the network with other libraries. I started looking online for books about a topic I want to research involving Illinois history, and even though my own library system (in Colorado) did not have the books, one of the university libraries in the area did. I was able to order them sent to my local library for checking out. I don’t get to keep them as long, but the convenience is so helpful. Much better than in the old days (80s) when I traveled to Illinois to spend hours going through books and taking notes at the University of Illinois library.
Patricia — I love the library networking example that you shared. Another golden example in a long list of library perks! 🙂
Yesterday! 🙂 Also presented for Indie Author Day. Small group, but so rewarding to talk to any and all readers and book lovers. I think my library, Owatonna Public Library, is an excellent library. Very homey, they do great programming for young kids and continue to update and change with the times. The original library is a magnificent old building from the early 1900s too.
Chris
Chris — I read your blog post about visiting with the attendees at your library for Indie Author Day. It’s neat that it was a casual, circle-type setting; a catalyst for a much deeper conversation. Way to go!
What a great feeling to see your book in a library. I did a reading at a Calgary library this summer and they carried all of my books. Those bookends are amazing! I love libraries but alas there are no English libraries here in Spain. I also have a huge TBR pile of books and more on my Kindle so I am never without reading material.
Darlene — Congratulations on your reading at a library in Calgary this summer. I’m delighted for you that they carry not one, not two, but ALL of your books!
Thanks! It was exciting to see them all there.
Congratulations on your book being in the library, Laurie!! What a lovely find! I love the library quotes here and I’m a firm believer in the power of good of libraries. I was there the other day returning a copy of Charlotte’s Web which had been recommended to me by another blogger (I loved it!).
Annika — I love Charlotte’s Web (even though I ball my eyes out every time I read it).
So exciting to see your book in the library stacks! Those grandly sized moose bookends are both unique (clearly) and fun!! I love libraries. I haven’t been to our local library in a while. My next library venture is to get an aluma card to Loyola University Chicago. I’m interested in inter-library research and access to collections related to my memoir. There’s something about libraries and bookstores that quickens my pulse!
Audrey — In May of 2012 I had the honor of having lunch with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Loyola University (here’s a link to my post about that experience: https://tuesdayswithlaurie.com/tag/lunch-with-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama/).
While there, I made the opportunity to visit their library. Oh me. Oh my! What a phenomenal facility!
“Back in the day” I visited our library frequently. Then I got my iPad, and the Kindle app as well as other reading apps, and I visited it online. Then I found Bookbub, and my life was full. I do have a digital book, “The Other Einstein” reserved from the library, but it has been reserved for a few weeks now, with no notice of availability. Frustrating.
Carol — I know what you mean about BookBub. I just finished an international promotion for NOTE TO SELF with them (Canada, UK, India, and Australia) and it was a really neat experience. Now that I’ve discovered them as a reader, too, I’m in book heaven!
Oh dear, good question. That would probably be some travel guides on Amsterdam and Munich back in 2014. I rarely check books out from the library anymore, ebook lover that I am. But I really should peruse the stacks more often. I should look into checking out ebooks as well, but my Kindle is already quite full of things to read as I tend to buy Amazon books when they go on sale for $1.99. I’ve mostly stopped doing free downloads though because I rarely get around to reading them. The new library in Nampa is pretty nice 🙂
Jeri — I haven’t been to the new library in Nampa YET. Soon. Very soon!
Congratulations, Laurie.
To answer, I checked three books out last Saturday.
My local library displays a list of local authors and their respective books. Some of us are indie. Others of us are traditionally published. We are all in the same game, in the same fight–to promote reading and the love of books.
Leanne — I love what you said about authors:
“We are all in the same game, in the fight to promote reading and the love of books.”
Amen siSTAR!
Hi Leanne:
Amen to what you say. Agree 100 per cent.
I visit my library often and have a daughter who is a librarian. I think I have been addicted to them since I was allowed to ride my bike there as a child. Amazingly I rarely got to use the library in grad school- reading so much for school hardly time for library adventures.
Patricia — I love that your daughter is a librarian and that libraries are your addiction!
Laurie, I read like I breathe, eat, and sleep, it’s a necessary function in my life. For many years I bought books as they came out, until when I decided to move across the country, I found myself with hundreds of volumes I had no interest in transporting. Having found homes for those books, I decided to take advantage of the Public Library, and not to store any more books than I had reasonable space for. Now my San Bernadino Library card lives next to my driver’s licence in my wallet. God Bless Mr. Carnegie!
Sandi — I gladly join my voice to echo yours: “God Bless Mr. Carnegie!” 🙂
I am always going to a library branch and there are so many in Toronto I’ll be old(er) before I get to them all. Have been a library patron since I was 12 and my grade school teacher marched all of us from my class to the new local library branch building. I must have liked it so much because when I moved back to Toronto in 1998 one of the first things I did was to go to that same library branch and get my library card. I not only get books from the library (and sometimes get over-extended putting books on hold) but use it for research – yes, online, but sometimes I go to the Toronto Reference Library to look at old books and documents.
And since October 2010 I’ve been teaching writing workshops at various Toronto library branches. Since February 2013 I’ve been doing writing presentations and readings with my Beyond mystery series books – sometimes on my own and sometimes with other Crime Writers of Canada members. And I now partner with my library branch, S. Walter Stewart, for my East End Writers’ Group to meet once nearly every month for writing critiques and some guest presentations.
I also see the art at library branches and go to health and wealth lectures, etc. etc. Libraries have expanded so much from only carrying books. The Toronto Reference Library also offers a service for library patrons to self-publish their books.
Now that’s progress of the right kind.
Sharon — WOW, I love the life-long relationship you have with libraries. I applaud YOU! 🙂
Ha, Laurie, I just checked out three children’s books not more than 45 minutes ago from my town library, but at this time fo teh year this is an everyday ritual!
So proud of you!!!! The libraries where your books are logged in are blessed my friend!! 🙂
Sam — I love that you just checked books out of the children’s section of your library! 🙂
What a big library. I know this was last week so I am very late but I missed it last week.
I am a life long lover of books and libraries. When we moved “out in the middle of nowhere” I never imagined I would even use let alone be thrilled with our small town library. What I love about our library is that it is a gathering place. It is not a “quiet” library so people chat, kids excitely look for books while some enjoy a nice comfy chair and a magazine. There is also a large computer lab and charging stations for phones. For some this is their only access to computers. While the local collection of books is quite small we are part of a larger library system so with inter-library loan there is much more availalbe. There are also other resources available online. But what I love most about our library is the programs for all ages. From geneology volunteers who provide help to inidividuals and teach classes, to book club to tai chi to health classes to Pinterest Craft Group to a writer’s group to recipe club to a wide variety of speakers for adults plus a full range of programs for children from story time to summer reading to crafts to STEM club to special movies and celebrations our little library offers more than I have seen at much larger libraries. And all of this is free of charge. Our library even sponsored Touch a Truck for the kids at a local park — it was a major event for the town.
I thought technology would be the end of libraries but our little library has changed and adapted with the times to meet the needs of it’s partrons and it is thriving.
Espirational — I love that your little library is GATHERING PLACE. yes, Yes, YES! 🙂