A Kiss for HoCo Public Libraries

ToT has always been a big fan of public libraries. Until I moved from My Shire to Prince George's County, MD, I had no idea what a good public library was. In the Shire, I ended up checking out the same book on the War of 1812 for about eight years in a row because there wasn't much better to be had.

Now that I live in Howard County, MD, I have inadvertently treated myself to one of the best public libraries in the country. It was #1 in 2005 and is #2 in 2006 for areas with between 250,000 and 500,000 people. The parking lots and the shelves are always full and I can't walk out of there with less than three doorstoppers.

Tonight, we hit the central library branch with the little Trackballs in downtown Columbia and I cleaned a whole bunch of books off my reading list. The kids loaded up the canvas bag we use to carry them and Micro got himself into the pajama time story hour. Here's what ToT will be reading:

Thirteen - Richard K. Morgan
Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Peter Drucker
The Watchmen - Alan Moore
Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

When you come home from the library with an armful of must reads, it's like your birthday - but for free (or, for very well spent tax money).

3 comments:

shoffy22 said...

ahh yeah! it's true, it's hard to beat a good library - not only do you walk out of the store with lots of treats but it's always so much fun to hang out there too!

i love the community aspect of libraries too, the bulletin boards for events, all the different types of people all hanging together, it's pretty rad!

shoffy22 said...

oops, accidently said store but it is sort of like a good barnes and noble with bonus features!

Bulworth said...

Columbia Borders keeps telling me that big, really good libraries are a myth, and that I really want to pay big bucks for my books so I can keep them.