As an addictive bibliophile, it is a natural thing for me to love libraries, but let me say that I owe so much for the libraries in my life, starting at age 4, when my mom used to take us to the library the same way other moms and dads took their kids to a playground.
Some of my earliest happy memories are of the wonder of these storehouses of knowledge and imagination that seemed as amazing to me as a royal palace or even Disneyland. My mom always told me that she started reading aloud to me in the womb and I believe her.
She loved books as well and wanted to pass that on to her children. So, every week we walked to our local library, turned in the books from the week before and found some new ones to enjoy. I remember the joy I felt, sitting on the steps of our front porch and opening a new book, anticipating a new adventure. Even the aroma of printer’s ink on the page was part of the experience.
My fascination with the printed word, as my mother read to me began a journey that has sustained me and enriched me powerfully over the course of my life. I was reading before I got to kindergarten and have been an avid reader ever since.
As I continued through my school years, in each school, probably my closest school association was with the school’s librarians. By the time I was finished with junior high school I pretty much had the Dewey decimal system memorized and kids at my school would come to me with questions in the library as often as they did with the librarian.
In high school I was a library nerd, before their were computer nerds. I spent nearly all of my out-of-class time at school in the library either studying or simply losing myself in a good book. By the end of my freshman year, I was already approved by the librarian to read books in the “senior section” of the library.
And now many…many years later, as an author of The Dimensional Alliance book series, my dearest wish is to have my books on the shelves of every library in the country. Sure, it’s great to have my books in bookstores. Obviously, selling books is important. But when it comes down to it, my greatest wish is that people in libraries can find my books there and read to their heart’s content.
Thank you to all of the amazing librarians all over the planet who offer all of us the option to read the books we love. So get out an support your local library. Thank a librarian. Take your kids to a library. Support their fund-raisers and give back to those who make these amazing resources possible.