One Down, One Hundred to Go...

I have a deep abiding love for bookstores. While I don't enjoy shopping for clothes or shoes, I could spend hours perusing book shelves, reading titles and blurbs, and admiring cover art. Give me Barnes and Noble or give me a small used book store - I'm not picky. I love the smell, the ambiance, the excitement of finding a new story in which to lose myself. 


Maybe it's because of this love that I always forget about libraries. When I want a new book to read, I head to the bookstore to indulge myself in some retail therapy, and thereby end up spending way too much money. Why in the world would I do that when there are these magical places where you can take and read books for free?? That's why I made goal #55: walk to the library by my house, get a library card, and check out a book. It's something I always think about doing, and maybe even talk about doing, but, let's be honest, would I ever get around to it? Not likely.


Well, today I did. It was an easy goal to complete, and now I can say that I've actually started making a dent in my list. So I walked three blocks to the Woodbury Branch Library. 

Let me tell you, the Woodbury Branch is less than impressive. It's quite small. I came hoping to check out, as per recommendation of three friends, Rebecca by Daphe du Maurier as my first of five classic books to read (goal #11). Woodbury did not have it. In fact their whole "Classics" section was comprised of four half-full shelves - maybe a few dozen books. So instead I checked out a book that has both A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens in it. I've never finished a Dickens book, so that feels like a worthy endeavor. I'm starting with A Tale of Two Cities, and then we'll see what happens after that. 

Hopefully my new library card will remind me to go borrow books more frequently, though I think I'll start looking for some larger branches.