OK...Here's a library card!

[Playinghardball]

[janlyn]

1. So true !!

I had many adventures growing up !!! Didn't have the computers but, I didn't need them. Books where my magic carpet !

[840high]

2. Mine, too.

Still love to read.

[Ace Acme]

17. I once loved to read

I'd come home from the library with 8 books and read them all before they were due.

Now check-out time is twice as long and I rarely read more than 2 before due date.

Too many books are padded out to fit the market expectation of heft. Most of them
would be much better if they were cut back to 120 pages--but then the publisher
couldn't charge $29.95 for them.

[zbdent]

3. what gets me is all the books written by conservatives (and the cars in the parking lots

with Republican political stickers on the bumpers)

in the socialist libraries ...

[Dr Hobbitstein]

4. I've got an Android tablet for that...

I used to love to read books, but the distractions of modern society has made it difficult. These days, I throw on earbuds, put on some music real low on the tablet (this takes care of audible distractions), then read my book. Of course, before this I'd use the walkman, then the discman, but having everything in one device is much easier than toting around all that stuff. My fiance is a TV watcher. We lay in bed, she watches mindless shows (Dancing With The Stars, American Idol, Long Island Medium). Now I can be in my own world.

[DeschutesRiver]

10. I buy books & get free ebooks but also download awesome books from the library via

Kindle or Over drive. I just love reading books on my tablet too! DH used to be the tv watcher, but when I recently got a "new" used tablet, I gave my old one to him. Who said he didn't see a use for it...been just a few weeks and it is in his hands daily to read his library books.

Also had the Walkman, jeez just thinking about hauling that sucker on hikes with a single cd playing over and over for hours gives me chills, lol.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

11. Yup...

My tablet doesn't have a whole lot of storage space, and I've only got a 2gig expansion card for it, but I loaded up some of my favorite bands (currently it's Green River, Mother Love Bone, Mad Season, Queens of the Stoneage, Temple of the Dog, Foo Fighters, and Tame Impala, plus a couple tracks by a local band called Bear In The Woods), throw it on random, and I've got a cool soundtrack for whatever I read.

I remember as a teenager, with my walkman and Pink Floyd's "The Wall" on cassette. I spent that summer with my father, and I brought the VC Andrews "Flowers In The Attic" series with me, and just the one tape. For the longest time, I couldn't listen to The Wall without thinking of those books.

[niyad]

5. a friend sent that to me this morning. as a life-long bibliophile, I loved it. books have always

been my own transporter beam to other times, other worlds.

[niyad]

6. "to the child who cannot read, the world is a closed book" (supposedly attributed to twain,

although I can find no reference to such). however, in trying to find such reference, I came across this page of quotes, many of which relate to books and reading, and some to drinking. Enjoy:

http://booksandbars.com/home/quotes/

[Hekate]

7. Santa is obviously related to my family

[FarCenter]

8. 42,000 free ebooks

Including most of the greatest classics.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

[Yavin4]

9. None of the NASA Engineers that put a man on the moon and returned him safely to Earth

had a computer as a child.

[Scootaloo]

15. Hell, they barely had computers as adults

The ones used in the space program had the processing power of a digital watch.

[JEFF9K]

12. Not only does the library lend out good stuff for free ...

... they have used-book sales that enable you to own great books for almost free.

[Ace Acme]

18. If the neocons had their way

... libraries would be violations of Intellectual Property rights, and library patrons would have to pay a licensing fee to borrow books. Free books? That's socialism!

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. k&r

[Enthusiast]

14. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch.....nt

[oberliner]

16. Is the kid supposed to be anyone in particular?

Or just a generic child on Santa's lap?

[ReRe]

19. K&R

Hey, that's a damn good idea! Santa gives kids "Free gift at library" card, in return for signing up for a library card! (The library's FOL group could purchase the gifts.) Also add on a free tour of the library to whet their appetite for the search of knowledge!

When I was a kid, the library was my salvation, literally. To get away from a dysfunctional violent home, I escaped to the library. I read and learned and traveled to places I had no chance of ever traveling to. It was the same for school.

Oh yeah... and see that little elf on the left with the "Save Our Library" shirt on? That's me. I saved a library once, which was threatened with closing. I founded the FOL group (Friends of the Library) for that library and the library was saved. Not only saved, but the library eventually got a brand spanking new building at a better location!