A Trip to the Library

In last week’s “What Am I Reading Wednesday” post I mentioned that that particular Wednesday had been quite the adventure, and here’s why:

I had the opportunity to visit my hometown library!

I’m from a pretty small town. The nearest bookstore was a forty-five minute drive away and the local library, despite being quite tiny itself, was the only place where newer books were available. (We had school libraries of course, but the selection was limited compared to the public library.)

I spent more days than I could count in that library, waiting for my parents to pick me up after school, spending entire summer days camped out in one of the fat, 1970s-era reading chairs that sat by the back windows, or just wandering the shelves trying to decide what to read next.

The children’s section of that library holds a particular place in my heart. Even before I learned the organization schedule used for the books, I had the locations of my favorites memorized. (Clever child that I was.) Last week when I stopped by for a visit, I wandered back into the children’s room and over to a familiar row of shelves. There was no way two of my favorite books could still be in the places they’d inhabited for decades, right? Right??

Wrong!

The cover is a little worn, but that's "King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table"

A treasury of different unicorn legends from around the world. 

There they were, in the exact same spots! Granted I’m now over a foot taller than the children’s shelves, so the angle was off, but they’re still there! 

I must have checked out both of those books a hundred times. They were the kind of stories that I could read over and over, and each time I’d discover something new about them that I hadn’t noticed before.

Have you ever had a book like that in your life? That special one that you could pick up right now and start reading, even though you could probably recite by heart by now?

By the way, someone had left this bookmark in the copy of “King Arthur”! How perfect was that? 

I know, I know - "The Pagemaster" got horrible reviews, but as a kid that was my favorite movie for a hot minute!