books, librarianing, rain

Perhaps I found my way into librarianship because how else can I get paid to talk about books? I made a list of books I rated all five stars because every time I finish a book I love, I want to gush about it. I love to sit at the circulation desk and check out books to people and talk about authors and plots. I also love to make custom reading lists for patrons, recommending them new titles based on what they’ve loved before and what new types of books they want to get into next. I love readers. I love being one, I love being around them.

My newest thing as a reader is to listen to a book on 2.65x speed on Libby while reading along with the print book. I’ve noticed my attention span has shriveled and shriveled over the years so I’m hoping to retrain my brain to focus. So far so good. I knocked out Melissa Faliveno’s “Hemlock” with this method and I felt the entire atmosphere of it. It was in my ears and eyes at once and I loved it. I’m reading Bryan Washington’s latest now (who knew he lives in Tokyo? Maybe everyone?) and I have a stack of books on my desk that I pulled in to match my Libby list.

Aarik gave me his library card number and having two library cards in Libby is incredible, I feel unstoppable. I will literally never run out of books to read and that is such a thrilling notion. Today it rained and rained in Omaha, all day the clouds moved and I saw different colors of umbrellas popping up outside the window at the library. At home, Holden told me he wanted me to see something that looked like art and then he pointed out the streaks the rain was leaving on our window. That too made me want to read.

Now that I’ve deactivated my social media accounts, I’m reading books in the time I used to spend reading the internet. I come home and make dinner, then crawl into bed with a few library books and my headphones. This too is a kind of life, and I’m happy to have it.