Bookish Musings - Why Libraries Are My Second Home

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is sharing her thoughts and love for libraries in a chock full post of advantages to, well, free books, everywhere! Don't utilise this fantastic feature, shame on you..

It's no surprise to anyone that this year, I've been borrowing more and more books from my local libraries, in fact, they've become a staple section in my monthly recap/haul posts, not to mention I've come across some of my most surprising and entertaining reads from the libraries like the Skulduggery series, Curse Workers Trilogy, Cinder and No and Me, so my experiences have been quite positive, but I haven't always been a library user, in fact, I went off the library radar entirely for around 11 years until this year, and picking the habit back up was possibly one of the best things I've done all year. My libraries are fantastic.




I'm blessed with some absolutely beautiful libraries in my borough, the ones I most frequently visit are the Wallasey Central and Birkenhead Central, and not only are they beautiful, they have the best collection of books combined that I've seen around, allowing me to try books that I've been considering for months without breaking my bank balance and making me feel less guilty if I don't enjoy them. There's something really magical about wandering through a library and seeing the huge range of different worlds and characters available to you at the drop of a hat, and it's even more exciting when you find books you never thought you'd take an interest in next to one's you've read and loved, it's exciting, it's thrilling, it's wonderful and it's free, and I don't think enough people take advantage of this lovely community edition enough. It's all good spending money on books and supporting your local book stores, but it's not just book stores that are struggling in the current climate, it's the libraries too, if not more than book stores. Whole buildings that stand strong in the community, with important historical documents and archives lie unused and abandoned by the current generation in favour of digital books, and I'm not slashing digital books, they're a great step forward into the future, but there's a world of free books available to everyone and they just get forgotten about. Because of this, I plan to change your opinions on libraries.


You see, if you can tell me what is more exciting than lots of free books, than I'll let you off the hook, but that's the thing, there isn't much better than a free book, (unless it comes with free comes of tea and bacon butties, then you get the gold) so why isn't this fabulous edition to society used more? Free books people, LOTS OF FREE BOOKS, utilise this feature! Now don't get all up in my face and shout at me about you libraries not having a good range of books because if you travel just that little further out, you may come across one you never knew existed, not to mention, especially where I live, some discount book stores will let you trade books or buy books and then return them and get half your money book, come on people, these are some great opportunities that are available to you and you should use them more.

Have I forgotten to mention how utterly fantastic it is when a library gets in that book you've been wanting to read for absolutely forever. You know, that one book that everyone else has read and told you you'll love, but your bank balance is as bare as the Sahara desert and you've had to impatiently wait and you get the text that it's finally there. IT'S SO EXCITING YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE. It's even more exciting than forgetting you've pre-ordered a book and getting a gift from past you because it's absolutely free. All that waiting and praying and avoiding spoilers was all worth it because you get to enjoy the wonderful experience of reading the book with no pain to your bank balance. It's an irreplaceable feeling.


How about the feeling you get when you've bought a book that you thought you would utterly devour and love every moment off and it just sucked, you know that feeling. With libraries, it doesn't exist. You just read the book, and if you didn't like it, no problem, no money down the drain, no wasted pennies on paper not worth the time it took to print on, no problem, just take it back, forget about it, because if you can't see if staring at you from your bookshelf, it didn't happen, am I right? I've had this feeling a few times, and as soon as it's left my flat, I've completely forgotten about how much that book annoyed me or how much it disappointed me. Not to mention that libraries are the perfect opportunity to give an author another go; not like that one book by that one author, try a different one by them, it might not be the author but the genre of the writing style, and you'd be surprised how often that second chance is a good chance. I might not have finished Prince of Shadows, but has it stopped me considering The Morganville Vampires series? No it has not.

I'd say the last and best thing about libraries is the sense of not feeling like an outsider. Other than my Mum, I don't really know else who reads that I don't know online and it can sometimes make me feel like a bit of a weirdo, but when I'm in the library, looking for the next book I want to take out and read, stopping to whisper (because it's rude to talk loudly in the libraries, library-etiquette tip for you there) to other people about what books they'd recommend for whether they've read read the book you're considering is wonderful, and it doesn't matter what age they are. I've had 10 year olds and 20 year olds come up to me and tell me that they've loved a book and that I should try it and I've gone ahead and loved it. It's always lovely to feel like you're part of a community, and even if that community isn't as popular or well known as maybe partying on the weekends or watching football, it makes me feel special and a part of something quite wonderful. All the happy emotions people.


(Today's gif choices were made especially for Maricel and Selah. Hope you enjoyed them ladies.)

How do you feel about libraries? Do you use your local places or do you tend to avoid them and stick with buying your books? Do you think we should use them more often and do you think more of them should move further into the future and allow digital borrowing similar to that in other parts of the world? Do you think David Tennant is attractive? Leave me your thoughts in the comments below.