Thursday 14 February 2013

Libraries, Finding Love Among the Stacks


I remember the first time I walked into a library. My older sisters needed to do some research for a paper and since they were babysitting me, I went too. I was maybe six or seven. They dumped me in the kids section, and I fell in love. I still remember the first book I ever read all by myself—Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion. That book introduced me to what would become my obsession with books.

I began to beg to be taken to the library. When most kids wanted to go outside and play, I wanted to spend my time sitting among the stacks. My mom indulged my obsession by dropping me off and letting me stay there all day. Yes, now days she would be arrested for abandonment but then it was fine.  I would sit for hours just looking at the different books. I loved to walk by the shelves and run my fingers over the spines. Now I am sounding like a perv. Oh, wait I am a Righteous Pervert. So I guess it is okay.

Our library was old so it had lots and lots of leather bound books. I think that is where my love of leather started. Oops, another pervy moment. I found people and places that were so different and strange to me. I lived in small town America. I had never heard of the great writers. I found them all on my own. I would go through the stacks and just pick random books that caught my attention and start to read. Sometimes I would finish it but others I just put it back.

As I got older my reading became a way to escape what was the reality of my boring life. I was painfully shy so books became my friends. I would see something on one of the three channels we used to get with the big antenna and my curiosity would run wild. The next day would find me at the library looking through encyclopedias and any other books I could find. I am not sure I ever spoke to anyone. I just would go in and look till I found what I wanted.

I think I freaked the librarians out because I was the most well behaved child there. I used to shush everyone. This also set my OCD with the care of my books in motion.  On the plus side, I stayed skinny because you couldn’t eat in the library.  Even now, I freak out when people at the bookstores get food and eat while reading. I might get something to drink, but I make sure it has a screw on cap so that if it gets knocked over, the books will not be harmed.

I can remember when I was even younger and was convalescing at my grandmother’s house, her sitting all day reading her multitude of Barbara Cartland books. I had no idea what they were about, but I knew that she loved them. I would see her with other books as well, but those were her absolute favorites. She had every one of them. When I was about twelve or thirteen I decided to look up Barbara Cartland. Wow, was I shocked. I had no idea that there were books out there like that. I saw all the Harlequins and would sneak them to my favorite snuggle spot and sit and read them. That began my affair with romance. I skipped all the classics and went straight for the good stuff.

It was not all fun and games. I was embarrassed by my reading skill. I was in sixth grade the first time it happened. At the end of fifth grade, we had to take placement tests. My first day of sixth grade, I looked up and saw my brother and several of his friends coming into my classroom. I thought I had the wrong room, but I checked my schedule, and I was in the right class. I was praying that he was in the wrong room. The teacher took role call and yep, there were two of us in the same class. She asked me to go to the guidance counselor’s office and wait. I had to make that long walk from the back of the class to the door, which for a shy kid is torture.  I sat there and waited. They came in and said they thought there was a problem with the test so I had to take it again. I took the test and scored higher and was sent back to the same class. Yep, I was in sixth grade reading at an eighth grade level. I found out later that I should have been in a freshman class, but they thought it was too far of a jump for me. I then spent even more time in the library—to escape the teasing of being too smart.

As I got older, I found other things to do as well, but every Saturday found me in the library doing research on something I saw that interested me. Most Sundays everyone in my small town was at church, but I was walking to the library to wait for it to open at one pm on the dot. I would spend as much time as I could there. Most days it would be me and the two librarians. They were not allowed to let anyone under eighteen check out the romance books so I had to stay there and read them. My sisters now had jobs and yep, they loved the romance books too. So I would wait till they were asleep then I would snag their books and use a flashlight to read them. I would be up all night reading and then just shower and head off to school with no sleep. It was my way of dealing with life.

I find now that most kids have never known the joys of the library. I am sad for them. They have no idea the wonderful experience of picking up a book, peeling back the cover and finding adventure and love from a different time and place right there at their fingertips. I hope that I have helped educate my nieces and nephews about the joys of libraries and books. If not, then I feel that I have somewhat failed in my job of being an aunt.

When did you fall in love with books? Was your affair with books started by your parents or were you like me and found love among the stacks?

17 comments:

  1. Wow, Tina! Not only are you super-smart, but you are my soul-mate! I, too, have been in love with the library since I was 5 years old. My first self-read book was Morris the Moose goes to School. My grandma gave me a copy when I was pregnant with my first child and I cried because I was so happy!!! I used to read 4 or 5 Harlequin romances a day over the summer when I was a teenager because (1) I lived in the middle of nowhere and (2) I was teased so badly for being a smart kid that I had no one to hang out with, anyway. I wish we had been friends then! If you will be my friend NOW, I promise not to eat anything around any books! ;-)

    Wow, that didn't sound needy or anything, did it? lol!?

    You are awesome. Thanks for letting me join The Pervs!

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    1. I think that most kids in small towns fall in love in the library because really there is just nothing else to do that won't get you arrested.

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  2. My book love affair started at home and with school book fairs. I didn't fall in love with the library until I moved to a small town at 13 and then I fell in love with my library and romance all at once. It was so small most of their books were donated, and the main lady who donated loved Romance.

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  3. There is always that one lady in town who loves her some romance and is generous enough to share her books.

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  4. Yo were lucky having parents that nurtured your love of books at that early an age. I was in my teens when the reading spark struck me. My cousin who was visiting from England lent me his book when I was bored. That's all it took to turn me into a book worm. I've got book cases full of all sorts of genres. Romance, Drama, Mystery, Suspense.... well no biography sorts, I read to escape reality and reading about some real persons life is not that appealing to me. give me the fake fantasy created by someone's imagination :) I deal with reality in my life I wanna get away from it when I'm reading. Much like TV, I avoid those reality shows like the plague.

    and you Tina set off the second wave of book worming! Those lovely smutty books you introduced me to! :D

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    1. I am glad you like the smutty books. I wasn't sure you would which is stupid looking back at it now.

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  5. I have always been a reader but mt love of romance was from my mum giving me a mills and boon to read when i was sick at about 13. Libraries rocked, they were my safe haven too. Also that was the only place I could find some of my authors, the selection in books shops here is shocking. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like Mia has lucked out with her Beta reader. Do the librairians still remember you?

    Cheers Cherie

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  6. I still get chills going into a library. Thank you Cheri

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  7. I fell in love among the stacks as well :). I still remember the first time I went into a library, I was nine. I'd just changed schools and every week you could borow a book. I picked up The B.F.G. by Rohl Dahl. Still one of the best books I have ever read and what started my love affair with reading :)

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    1. I am betting it helped inspire you to become an author.

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  8. I don't remember the first time I went to the library, but I remember many late nights reading with a flashlight. My mom was a reader, and probably the earliest thing I can remember is sitting in her lap in the rocking chair reading The Velveteen Rabbit and Cordurory. I was really little but I remember loving those two books. As I got older it was The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins, then RL Stine and Goosebumps. By high-school I thought it was much cooler to read classics like Dracula and The Hobbit. I think my love of romance started with the books Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small. I devoured her books. By the time I finished hers I was addicted to Romance. Look at what this vicious vicious addiction has done to my life. :P Thanks for the post Tina!

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    1. Wow I don't think I have read any of the same books as you lol

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  9. Tina, that was a delightful post. Your words brought back so many memories for me of my own childhoold. My mum shared with me her own books from childhood--Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Enid Blyton--so I grew up with a love of books.

    Like you, I started off visiting the library with my older sisters. I soon fell in love with the place, including the index card system with its ancient wooden cabinets, the smell of so much paper and touching all those books and wondering who else had held that weighty tome in their hands. *major dork*

    I appreciate that modern technology means many children don't need to reference the library like years before when Google was no more than a pipedream. But there is so much to be gained from this precious resource. Discovering the language of books in a hands-on fashion, and sharing that with like-minded people in a building where you are all reading and searching together, forms a type of bonding that you and your E-Reader alone could never hope to achieve.

    And, as I've stated in my bio, my love of romance novels started with my Mum's Mills & Boon novels--many of which were borrowed from the local library.

    Thank you for sharing your memories with us.

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    1. OH the index system I loved it and hated it too. I love the smell of the books is that creepy?

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  10. My mom was an avid reader, I get my love of reading from her. I started reading in 4th grade but found my mom's romance books from the Double Day Book Club and Harlequin when I was in 6th grade. And the rest is history. Last year I read 375 stories (I hesitate to say books because some where short stories). I love the escape they bring!

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  11. I haven't thought about Double Day in years. Wow that brings back so many memories.

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  12. I fell in love with the library when I entered third grade. I had been a freak at my first school because my mom taught me how to read at home so by the time they finally let me enter kindergarten, I already could read...I still am an ardent patron of 3 different libraries (0:

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