In one of yesterday’s HaBOs, Amanda wrote about being grounded from the library for reading romance novels as part of her request to find her lost book – which was found because y’all know pretty much everything, including, I suspect tomorrow’s lottery numbers. Maybe.
After Amanda’s lost book was identified as Silver Fire by Sally Stone, the discussion that evolved afterward was all about your memories of using the library, either the one at school or the one in your town.
Aelily wrote,
…Amanda’s story about being grounded from the library reminded me of a time I got grounded from my books. I wasn’t doing my homework (cause I had books to read that were far more interesting) and my grades were suffering, so as a punishment, my mom took all my books away. It was a rough month;I had to smuggle in reading from the outside,and read ahead in my lit textbook.
LML has an even more chilling memory:
My mom would call the school library and the public library and tell each that I was not allowed to check out any books that week because I had misbehaved. Sooo embarrassing…
Seriously. I just got the shivers thinking about that. YIKES. That’s hard core punishment right there.
I asked the ladies here in Bitchery HQ if they had any library memories, and two of us, who wish to remain nameless because of deep-seated shame, took books out of the library without checking them out (GASP) because we weren’t sure we were allowed to read them and didn’t want anyone to know. I’m not naming names, but I bet that’s true of a few of you, too.
(Please don’t hurt us, wonderful librarians! We are sorry!)
Liz Talley said in the comments yesterday that,
I thought I was the only one who’d ever been punished by taking away a book. My mother was infamous for hiding my books until I did whatever chores she’d set before me. I remember the first time she did it – I had hurried home from school, excited to get to that next chapter, and my damn book was gone! My mother sauntered in, fanned with it and said I’d get it back when she could see the floor in my room. I’d never been so absolutely incensed in my life.
I begrudgingly cleaned up and she finally gave me the book. I learned how to hide my books after that. Probably under all the clothes.
I’m kind of relieved I’m not the only one who had a very messy room with books hiding in the clutter.
Carrie has lovely library memories – I wish my library had had one of these:
I have a lot of library stories but my most visceral library memory, the most physically clear early childhood one, is of being in our old yellow kitchen listing to Dial-A-Story on the white phone that was, brace yourself, actually attached to the wall, and playing with the cord while a recorded librarian read stories to me.
It’s what my mom would do when she was busy and I was bored. “Go call Dial-A-Story!” and you never knew what story you would get. Amazingly, even in the youtube era, the library where I live (same one I grew up with) still has “Dial-A-Story.” Only for kids – you can’t call and hear a random excerpt from Outlander.
Elyse says that her husband had an awesome teacher who changed his life with a book:
She gave him a copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ( A ) to keep because she believed he was a reader even though he struggled.
It lead to his lifelong love of scifi and books and also his eventual diagnosis of dyslexia – and his job in a bookstore where we met and fell in loooove.
All together now: Awwwwwwwww!
Elyse also has memories of being scared to look at the romance in her library:
I loved the library as a kid. When I got to middle school and found romance novels, I was traumatized though because the paperback romances were right in the middle of the main room in full sight of the doors and ANYONE COULD WALK IN AND SEE ME LOOKING AT THEM!
I know that feeling. I KNOW IT WELL. In my library growing up, after I was introduced to romance, the only place I could find them were the spinning metal racks that were directly across from the circulation desk. *shudder*
At least the librarians never said a word to me.
Vicki wrote in the comments to yesterday’s post that she had to sneak past the librarians:
By the time I was eight, I had read my way through the children’s section at the Vancouver Public Library and started on the adult section. It wasn’t my mother who tried to keep me out, though. Mom just dropped us off and went shopping. It was the librarians. I would wait until they weren’t looking and sneak in. Read the early Mary Stewart that way.
I had no idea Canadian librarians were so fearsome! Good gracious, Canada!
RedHeadedGirl says her library habit was formed at a young age:
Libraries were the only way to keep up with my reading habit. It’s where I discovered a lot of the romances that I remember fondly (for better or for worse) and during the summers, dad would either trot me down to various branches or I would ride my bike when I was old enough.
And in Boston we are lucky enough to have this amazing villa of a main library that made studying and writing papers more tolerable.
Smart Bitch Amanda (and wow there are so many awesome Amandas that hang out here- hi guys!) has a really touching library story, too:
My love of the library didn’t happen until into my late teens. After high school. Which was a super rough time for me. I was trying to go to school and my mom sort of left for a while. I won’t get into the details. My dad travels a lot for work and my brother was around 14 or 15. I love my brother, but I was very depressed having to take care of him as a mom would (taking him to school, making dinner, etc) and take a semester off of college.
My solace became the library and GoodReads. I discovered a few groups on GR that did romance reading challenges, like read your way through the month (example: If it was January, the first word in the title or the author name would have to correspond and spell out the month). It gave me a sense of structure, which I know I need in general. I’d make reading lists and put books on hold at the library to pick up. We lived in a rural area then, and I’d make the hour drive to go get them. I’d probably pick up three or four books at a time and be done with them in a week or two. Rinse and repeat. I probably would have lost my mind if it wasn’t for the Alachua County Library.
Thank you to everyone in yesterday’s comments for the suggestion – your stories are lovely to read! So what about you? Do you have a library story you’d like to share?