The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsToday is the first day of National Library Week . Can you remember a book/books that you read from the local library?
My first was the Nancy Drew Mysteries. My latest was a book on Abraham Lincoln. And you?
Polly Hennessey
(8,887 posts)I dont remember my first books but I remember coming home with a pile of books and feeling as though I had discovered treasures upon treasures. I loved my Nancy Drew mysteries. I am still a reader usually reading three at a time. Currently: Passages by Connie Willis; Henry V by Dan Jones; and, Murder At The Beacon Bakeshop by Darci Hannah (my cozy mysteries just before lights out are my memories of Nancy Drew).
hauckeye
(802 posts)Growing up in small town Iowa, I remember a book I checked out many times from the small local library: Borrowed Angel by Marguerite Hamilton. Real life story of a chronically ill child and her mothers efforts to save her. Its out of print now.
Goonch
(5,312 posts)
alfredo
(60,317 posts)Ended up buying the book so I can read at my leisure.
True Dough
(26,961 posts)'How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack,' by Chuck Sambuchino
Very informative. One can never be too careful!
Mad_Dem_X
(10,209 posts)It was a sanctuary for me. I remember reading a book on The Beatles; I think it was called The Boys From Liverpool.
Diamond_Dog
(40,782 posts)when my mom took me to the big library downtown with all the steps. Back then I loved biographies of famous people. Authors Madeline LEngle and Beverly Cleary were favorites back then, too.
Now my adult son is an IT Specialist at the same library! (newer building)
electric_blue68
(26,989 posts)I remember my 2nd neighborhood library. I lugged home a big book on clothing through the ages in my early teens. Lots of illustrations!
In NYC we have the great Lion's library. And the big Mid-Manhattan across the street from that; which now has a great roof top area, and café .
I lived about about 8 blocks away from Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn for about 8 yrs; and the Brooklyn Central library was across from that. Big fancy bronze doors with brass decorations! A big plaza which they redid w cool little water fountains. Big ?2-3 story lobby with display cases for rotating art works!
And now in The Bronx I haven't gone to my 2nd neighborhood local library (went to my first one) bc by bus not too far away I can go to The Bronx Central library. Waaay bigger!
For now since covid I've been getting
e-books from our library. I will get back to the actual library soonish.
irisblue
(37,654 posts)c-rational
(3,211 posts)is where I found Herman Hesse and Sinclair Lewis.
SWBTATTReg
(26,318 posts)I must have read each book 10 times!
MiHale
(13,088 posts)The librarian I checked out
we dated for a couple months. The library was my peaceful place
before meditation.
teach you the Dewey Decimal System, MiHale?
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,775 posts)I remember reading the abridged version while in college. It was very hard to get through in the beginning. The first 30ish pages took a few days with a bit of rereading to remember all the different characters. the next 90 some pages I finished in an afternoon and evening. The final 700 I made into a 22 hour marathon with a couple bathroom and food breaks.
Haven't seen you for a bit. Started getting worried.
kairos12
(13,658 posts)"A Wrinkle in Time."
JoseBalow
(9,604 posts)I'm there every week. I request a hold for everything through the website, either from my local system or the interlibrary loan network, then I drop in to pick-up and return my items, with a quick perusal of the New Arrivals section before I check out.
Lately I've been reading everything written by David Grann. I just finished The Lost City of Z this afternoon. The Wager has been my favorite, so far. I've got two or three more on my list to go.
surrealAmerican
(11,907 posts)... we had a special section of the library (within the children's section) where they kept the ITA books.
LogDog75
(1,317 posts)My local library is about two blocks from where I live so it's convenient for me. Over the past 15 years, I've checked and read out over 700 books in hardback, paperback, of Ebooks.
Morbius
(1,031 posts)I had to renew it; it took me six weeks but I went through that book and taught myself how to think.
That was over thirty years ago; to this day I tell young folks (when I can find those who are willing to listen) that if you choose not to go to college, your public library is the next best thing.
Also, the novels of David Weber, a kind of pulpy military science fiction writer whose works are tremendous fun if not technically literature. There's the Honor Harrington series, followed by the Safehold series. Comes to thirty books or so, perhaps more, and I didn't pay for a single one. Love your library!

Figarosmom
(12,498 posts)I read every book in the kids side and then the librarians let me read all the biographies on the adult side. I don't think they knew how racy The Agony and the Ecstasy or Lust For Life were. But they were biographies and they said I could read them.😊
hunter
(40,768 posts)A wonderful book for a young pyromaniac.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drury_Clark
Brother Buzz
(40,107 posts)Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
by Edwin A. Abbott
I inherited Library Card #2 at my Podunk Carnegie Library from my grandmother and have put it to good use. I have a wonderful relationship with my librarians.
retread
(3,927 posts)Boys, Tom Swift, Doc Savage, many others. And then I stumbled on Lord of the Rings and fell into that worm hole.
nuxvomica
(14,141 posts)I had seen the movie Tales of Terror at the Paramount Theater during the Saturday horror show and wanted to read "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", which had been dramatized in the movie. Waiting for our mom to pick us up, my sisters and I ended up in the lobby of the Queensbury Hotel and I passed the time reading that gloriously horrifying book in the fancy surroundings, which seemed almost a subversive activity. I knew that Poe was supposed to be an important writer but I was tickled that despite his importance his stuff was also fun to read.
Niagara
(11,878 posts)Most likely because it wasn't in walking distance.
My mom was in the position where she purchased me books and so I became a book reader with my own personal at home library.
I remember having First Time Books, Scholastic and Please Read To Me that were large and paperback for early readers. Some of them included Berenstain Bears, Barbar and Richard Scarry BusyTown type of books.
I remember a book fair in the 5th grade at school and my mom purchased me the set of Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" yellow 9 book boxed set that was printed sometime in the 1970's. My mom helped me order and buy books from the Scholastic order forms as well.
Of course I used the library at all the schools that I attended.
The last time I was in a public library a few years ago I was returning an almost due book. The book was "The Other Mrs. Kennedy" by Jerry Oppenheimer. I placed the book in the return bin and I was walking towards the shelves. I walked past this guy who was speaking to another guy and he said, "No one wants to work anymore."
Let me say, I wasn't at all quiet about mocking this guy and his idiotic comment. I've never returned to the public library after this incident, it's roughly been about 3 years or so now.
I honestly didn't know that these people visited public libraries truth be told.
multigraincracker
(37,816 posts)Spend hours there looking up local history and maps. Also newspapers and magazines.
I have a Tribal Card from when I lived in Tribal Lands. Good at many libraries in the state.
redstatebluegirl
(12,854 posts)The local library was my refuge as a girl, and still is as a 70 year old woman. I just checked out the latest David Baldacci book.
gopiscrap
(24,754 posts)I was nine years old, my nun told me I couldn't read it for a book report my mom argued with the nun and I got to use it for my book report. It was just put out in other languages (German being one of them) so I was able to read it. I was deeply enamored of Kennedy as a young boy, so read every thing I could about him. BTW got an A- on the report