Rediscovering what's free

Since I have no paying job to speak of, I have been forced to be more creative and thrifty with how and what I spend my husband's hard earned money on. I have designated Mondays as "no cost Mondays". So, I go to the library (laugh if you wish but this was at first quite difficult for me---I heart books more than I heart Starbucks and love to buy them all up!), then I go to McDonald's for their free mocha...which I am sad to report, this past Monday was the end of that. Boo. Hoo. The beach (I'm not counting gas as an expense) has also become my new favorite past time. It is great because I can people watch, get some rays, read those library books, and sip on my free mocha (although I'm gonna have to figure something free out for next week).
Rediscovering the library has been super nice. It brought back memories from summers with my grandparents---and if memory serves, they went once a week, every week, and when I would visit, so would I. Even then I loved buying my own books (it's a sickness) but there is always a great feeling attached to hunting and discovering the perfect book from the library to check out and take home with you for three weeks. It is a more intense relationship with the books you check out versus the ones you buy. Immediately you know that the books you choose from the library are temporary. They are books that have been read by countless others. They have a history, a story all their own. Maybe someone read them late at night, alone in their bed. Or maybe early in the morning at a coffee shop. On the bus, in a waiting room, on a plane or the backseat of a car on the highway. Inside a tent camping on the north shore (wait, maybe I...ahem, you aren't supposed to take library books there?) The bookstore book is a little less exciting. It was in a box, on a boat, and on a shelf. The end. A few hands might have picked it up to see what it was about but it didn't travel from person to person and place to place like the library book did...well, that's what I tell myself to make the mundane trip to the library every week more exciting. I am learning about all kinds of different things though. Each week I usually have a topic and search for books in that category. Last week it was all about eating Vegan and Vegetarian. Can you discern this weeks theme?
This week I checked out: 1. The Everything Home-Based Business Book
2. Weekend Entrepreneur: 101 Great Ways to Earn Extra Cash
3. Cracking The First Grade: Reading and Math
4. Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun. (This is a book about fun things to do with your kids...get your mind out of the gutter!)
I should totally be a book photographer! Is that a job? Is anyone hiring for that?

Comments

Mai said…
One of my "things to do while Arwen's off for a month" is take Arwen down to the library to get her first library card now that she can sign her own name. I have many library memories beginning with the 3rd grade when I went to the library EVERY DAY after school. (It was on the path home.) Congrats on the rediscovery. The concept of borrowing is a difficult one for Arwen and me to get used to, too. Arwen says, "So wait. We pick a book and then we have to TAKE IT BACK?"
August 6, 2009 at 2:12 PM

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