You know, I’ve been meaning to get to this.
Some of the things I did get to this month:
- Work as usual
- Provisionally prepped, revised my Canvas course, and lesson planned for the entire winter quarter for the Career Search class I teach (moonlight adjuncting means I don’t count this as my “work as usual” responsibilities because I’m grant-funded and not supposed to use work hours to complete my teaching duties)
- Performed in a community choir concert with 700 audience members in attendance
- Bought and wrapped the Xmas gifts
- Arranged for a bathtub repairman to come (our bathtub has a crack…)
- Spent an hour cleaning the bathroom in preparation for the repairman
- Arranging time to accompany the repairman as he makes his repairs
- Wrote a poem that will never see the light of day (probably)
Some of the things I didn’t get done this month:
- Writing any blog posts (until this this one!)
- Listening to my complimentary audiobook of Operation Hail Storm by Brett Arquette and reviewing on Goodreads
- Writing anything of that novel I’m trying to focus on
- Reading my new copy of the Gold Man Review
I’ve been meaning to celebrate the library as an entity on this earth, which is the goal of this blog post! Why, you might be wondering? So many reasons, but a few timely ones that I’ll focus on today.
Backstory first: I loved the library as a kid. I would wander the nonfiction shelves and consistently check out the fairy tales, monster encyclopedias, and strange books of lore. Does anyone know the section I’m referring to? It’s a specific section, librarians let me know the Dewey Decimal range if this ever reaches your eyes, and if you discover it there are so many encyclopedias dedicated to lore, myth, and fairy tale. Those were some of the most beautiful books my young eyes had ever seen. Some I wish I could track down to this day.
As a college student attending a the University of Arizona, my university library had a similarly vast and never-ending supply of beautiful, interesting books. Living in Bellingham, I’ve come to settle for the fact that our libraries are not stellar. I’d love to be proven wrong, but even my alma mater Western Washington University doesn’t have a robust selection of short story collections and contemporary fiction for its MFA program (a huge letdown when I attended there). I couldn’t find a Tony Morrison book in there. Come on, people. She’s famous.
Since moving back to Washington State, the library as a nationwide institution had not served me particularly well, which I had come to terms with. I’m happy it exists for the young people who are looking for easy-to-find things, but I have apparently moved beyond what a middle-sized somewhat progressive town can offer in terms of physical books.
Recently, I joined a book club at work because socializing was absent from my life (see previous list of accomplishments and tasks still on the table to complete). I was trying not to spend much extra money what with the holiday season and that pesky series of hairline fractures in my tub (cue anxiety flutter in my breastbone).
Participating in the book club meant that I needed to acquire books regularly without having to stress about buying them every month. I’m also a really slow reader because I have dry eyes and am pretty tired when I get home from work, so the whole idea of being accountable for regularly finishing books each month was kind of stressing me out. That’s when I discovered that my library has an audiobook system we can use called the Washington Anytime Library. I listened to Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (approximately 10 riveting hours) on audiobook and I was hooked. Then, we did The Round House by Louise Erdrich (gotta love her), and the narrator was amazing.
Around that time Brett Arquette offered me a complimentary copy of his audiobook titled Operation Hail Storm. I was pretty jazzed at the offer, and I will definitely update here and on Goodreads when I am done. I’m only about two hours in, though, but so far so good. The very first page was a little rocky, but I reminded myself that technothriller is the genre of this book and that first page makes it clear. There is also a great amount of character development so far and I’m happy to say quite a bit of upending of gender stereotypes and thoughtful, interesting internal dialogue and reflection from various characters (both male and female, beautiful and those with other primary strengths unrelated to physical appearance).
Back to the topic of the library. I’m so happy that this online service exists. I have not had the friendliest experience in-person at my downtown library, and I didn’t even find the children’s book I was looking for (Garth Nix, Keys to the Kingdom series, one of the later books in the series). That was the whole reason I originally got a library card this year. The availability of high quality audiobooks from contemporary authors, including Garth Nix, Tamora Pierce, Blake Crouch, Louise Erdrich, and more definitely returns my faith to the libraries in my city. Long live the libraries!