And here is our little library that I visit at least once a week, it seems......I am a voracious reader, and go through one to three books during a week. Not counting the daily newspapers and my arts and crafts and sewing magazines! I will start a listing on my blog (when I learn how) of my favorite books as I finish them, in case anyone reading here likes to read the same types that I read. (I have kept a notebook for the past 30 years of all the books I've read, and also "rated" them, in case any were good enough to read a second time!) My memory is not reliable any more, so my record book saves me from reading "no account" books a second time! Heh, heh........life is too short and there are too many great new books out there I need to read! This past summer I've been enjoying all the library's books about Abraham Lincoln and his family and career, for some reason. Both fiction and non-fiction.......they were a fascinating family. I also like to be first on the list to read the large-print new best sellers; especially ones by my favorite authors.

This little library building is very old, and I loved going as a child and sitting at the little oval wooden tables with kid-sized chairs to pick out my books for the week in the "children's room". Of course now the library is out of private hands and receiving state monies, which is both good and bad. We got "computerized" and have more workers, and money to buy new books every month. But the quiet, peaceful days of sitting to read the newspapers or book reviews are gone forever. And the thing I miss most of all is the little signature card that stayed in the paper pockets on the books' last page and showed everyone's signature who had read it before I did...........this was a great help, because if I saw the names of friends who love the same types of books that I do, I knew I should get it!

And just two blocks away, ground was recently broken to build a new and larger library. Of course it's been needed for years, but we are a poor county and have high taxes. The new building will offer lots more stuff that we've never had: audio books; movies; a genealogy room to do research in; larger bathrooms; offices; meeting rooms; computers for the general public and for school kids who might not have them at home.............and God knows what else. I'm sure I will use the new library, but I will miss this pretty old building and the quiet days spent there seeking out new and old favorites, and whispering with our friends we'd happen to run into and get caught up on each other's "favorite book list".

Notice in the photo above all the wonderful old trees and shade; this library is on the courthouse square in the middle of town. The trees are very old and in the summer children check out their books and sit on the grass and learn to read, while the adults visit and good-naturedly fuss at each other for "beating" them to the newest of the "best sellers".
The new building will be built where our old A&P grocery store once stood.......in the middle of a naked, hot cement parking lot. We'll have lots more convenient parking spaces for sure, but I sure will miss the shade and autumn colors of the huge old maple trees that will be left behind.