Wednesday, May 9, 2012

What happened to the libray?

I went to my local library yesterday to renew my library card.  I used to have one in this county about a million years ago, but thankfully they no longer have me in the system.  I fear I would have had some 15 year overdue book fine!  I decided to use the library for as many as my 100 books as possible.  I thought for sure I would at least be able to grab the classics off the list.  Wrong!  How does a library not have a single copy of Pride & Prejudice?  They did have 4 copies of Pride & Prejudice and Zombies! Say what now!!  Utter insanity.  So from there I moved on to Les Miserables.  Nope.  I managed to find one copy of Wuthering Heights, so that will be my next read.  I know I can get a lot of these for free on my Kindle, but I just feel really weird about reading a book that was written in like 1846 on my ereader.  Seems disrespectful or something.  Now, any of these that I fall in love with, I will more than likely add to my kindle for rereading purposes.  But as a first go round, I am sticking with paper.  I had no idea it was going to be such a tricky task though!

So far I have checked 3 books off of my 100 Books to Read Before You Die list:

1.  The Stand by Stephen King.  This was good! I tend to read a little faster through the parts that are scary, so I never find books as freaky as movies.  In a movie the scary scenes last forever, with background music and slow walking and such.  I could immediately tell which scenes would have scary music behind them, but I just kept reading.  If you don't know, this book is about what happens after a killer virus is released into the world, and spreads.  It was so fascinating because it really took the time to start from the first person who was infected, and how it spread from there, and eventually killed I think like 98% of the population.  I have been using much more hand sanitizer, and I get a little jumpy when people around me start to cough or sneeze!  From there, it becomes about survival and rebuilding "society", and eventually a battle between good and evil.  It definitely made me think a lot!

2.  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  I read this at some point in school, so I remembered the story, but not necessarily a good chunk of the smaller parts.  I forgot how amazing this book is. 

3.  Blubber by Judy Blume.  I am sure I read this one growing up.  But I do not really remember much of it.  Its basically about bullying.  Its sad how relevant it still is after all of this time.  Is there ever going to be a time when we aren't being mean to other people?  I wish I remember reading this one when I was younger to see if my immediate feelings about the characters were the same.  Did I pick up right away that the "popular" girls were picking on someone else for no good reason?  Or did it take until the end of the book when the tables really turn around for me to see it? 

Wuthering Heights and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe are next up!

2 comments:

  1. Sadly, library budgets are slashed and people don't treat things well, so when a book is trashed, it's not always replaced. However, see if you can go online and request a copy to be sent to your library from another branch. I do this all the time - they send me an e-mail when it's in. LOVE Wuthering Heights.

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  2. I am not surprised that libraries are understocked. It's an electronic age after all...Sounds like you've got a good start on the book list though. That will be quite an accomplishmnet to read all of those books!

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