I'm bookholic. I go into book-withdrawal if I go for a week without reading. (This is the extreme downside to girl's camp and EFY. No books.) I love the feel of a book in my hands. I love the sound the pages make when they turn. I love the smells of new vs old books. I love the way they line up on shelves, ready to be friends. I love the words on a page, in straight lines, with secrets and stories waiting to be read.
The side-effect of this is that I go to a lot of libraries. I love libraries.
This means a lot of library cards. We live in a rural area, so we have to drive fifteen minutes to an hour (depending on the direction and what your criteria for 'town' is) to find civilization. I can name eight off the top of my head without going to look, and one of those cards is for Austen and is for more than one library.
Normally Libraries and I experience a sunny relationship. Aside from the occasional late fee on my side, and not having a book I want on their side, we get along fairly well.
Right up until I turned seventeen. Austin has (had, but that's the end of the story) an annoying policy towards people who are out-of-county, which we are. Only check out so many books, can't renew online or over the phone, blah blah blah. Unless you're a child or a student, in which case you can do no wrong. When we moved here I was thirteen. I was a child. I got a child's library card. The Teacher and I shared this card so that we wouldn't have to drop everything and drive an hour in every time we had overdue books. We really only go into Austin once a month or so, sometimes twice.
But now I am seventeen. I am no longer a child. They won't let me use my library card. I have to get an adult library card. (This has a happy ending; the Teacher got a library card and found out that their policy had changed- of course they never told us this- and the books got checked out anyway.) But I am seriously annoyed.
I can't buy cigarettes. I can't buy beer or any other alcoholic beverage. I can't drive (yet- fear and tremble!). But I can't use my library card, because I'm seventeen.
Stupid library.
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Awww. That is a terrible thing, to have to be treated like an adult. (;
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad they changed their policy. I try not to frequent libraries that don't let me renew online or over the phone - that's where I REALLY rack up the fines!!!