In Praise of the Local Library
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Wed Jan 24 09:21:00 EST 2024

When we bought our house, we knew
we wanted to be walking distance to
town center. We had various reasons:
access to public transport, shops,
and restaurants... but of all the
amenities, the one that's been by far
the best is the library.

Which came as a bit of a surprise to
me.

Around the time we were buying, we
were planning our wedding, and of
course juggling a bunch of home
repairs, so reading was low on my
list of leisure activities (watching
YouTube videos on how to fix slow
draining sinks was high).

But the library has been so much
more than a place to get books. They
host live music, free exercise classes,
and have a wealth of knowledge of the
town (which has been fun to explore).

Even cooler (for the recent homeowner),
they have a "library of things", where
you can check out tools, board games,
and more. I used it just this week to
check out an air quality tester and
moisture meter to make sure our stove
wasn't polluting the living space and
the wood is properly seasoned. That's
>$200 in tools saved! How cool is that?

And of course there's books, lots of
them :) Our library is part of a bigger
network where they'll share books
with neighboring libraries, which has
meant I have never found a title I
couldn't get at the library.

So here's a little thanks to all our
librarians; you make the community a
better place :)