My childhood library was a mansion. A castle. A book-lined building of burgundy brick. A portal to imagination.
Adventure. Possibility.
People I met through reading.
I ran my fingers along a rainbow of spines. Grabbed titles. Devoured words.
Trapped in a tiny town, I reconnoitered the world. Letters. Language. Pictures, sometimes. I toured England and New York. India and Indiana. Southeast Asia. The Arctic Circle. Space. Thousands of years ago. Millennia from now.
Books took me
EVERYWHERE.
Last month, my hallowed hometown library invited me to return. As an author. Of my own stories. Tales inspired in part by words I discovered within those walls.
My library
made me
a better writer.
SUPPORT YOUR LIBRARY! Attend events. Recommend your favorite reads. Thank your librarians. Donate to Friends of the Library programs.
You never know
who you’ll inspire
to write.
Do you have a favorite local library? A certain librarian whose reading recommendations rock?
I want to meet them.
Libraries are booking me now for Fall/Winter appearances,
reading clubs and panel discussions.
If you’d like to see me or my books at a library near you, here’s what you can do:
- Recommend my books to librarians. They are available through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, standards for library ordering.
- Tell event librarians about my presentations. I have a growing list of librarians who are willing to endorse me as a reliable, entertaining speaker for any library event.
- Ask librarians to book me for your library event/reading group/panel. They may contact me via my Contact Page HERE.
7 Comments
I’m working on a song that has the library of my old home town (in Massachusetts) in it.
Andra, I remember, as a child, walking into the library and looking up to see so many, many books. I loved the library. The smell of the library, the peace of the library, the welcome of the library…we lived so far out of town though that my savior was the book mobile. When I see one I literally get choked up and tears in my eyes. Library = best part of childhood.
Our local library branch recently closed. The nearest ones to us now are many exits up and/or down the outer belt. So different than when we were kids and all things bookish revolved around the library. Don’t know if I think that this is progress, but maybe the consolidations will be for the best. We’ll see.
I always remember the library as a place to be. I was there almost every day after dinner.
I don’t visit the library very often, Andra. When I am interested in a book, I download one to my Nook or I run to Barnes & Noble or I visit the Half-Price Book Store. The problem I have with borrowing a book from the library is that it takes me awhile to finish a book in between everything else. I’d be constantly paying fees for late returns.
I have six or seven library cards in my wallet. My local library isn’t what it once was and I travel just a short distance to others, but I donate and am a member of “Friends of the Library” to my local library, simply because it was THE place where I spent hours and hours as a child and I think I owe it something. 🙂 What a delight to be honored at YOUR library!
libraries are magic.
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