I learned something new!

So here's a somewhat embarrassing fact about me....up until about a year ago, I didn't realize that libraries had actual books.* Like, books you actually want to read. Sure, I knew they had children's books and non-fiction books to do research with. I also thought they had a small selection of fiction books, but I thought they were old books. The "classics" if you may.

*At this point, I must openly apologize to my mother-in-law who is probably cringing. Until recently, she worked in a library and had done so for many years. Sorry Mary!

When I quit my job to stay home with Abby, I was looking for ways to entertain her and to save money at the same time. So, after some research I discovered rhyme time at the local library (20 minutes of sing alongs and storied geared toward the 0-2 crowd). While there, we checked out a few books for Abby. This continued for a few months, and I gradually figured out how to search for books for her. (Yes, this was probably taught to me at some point in school, but computers and I are not friends.) She now loves the library because it means 3-4 new books every time!

Then, a few weeks ago we were searching for Pinkalicious, and asked one of the librarians for help because I wasn't sure how many colors were in the series. (It's Pinkalicious, Purplicious, and Goldalicious if you're curious. They're quite cute.) That's when she introduced me to the concept of "holding" a book. The conversation went kinda like this:

Librarian- "Do you want me to hold Pinkalicious for you?"
Me- "How can you hold it, if it's not here?"
Librarian- Trying to hold in her shocked face. "Uhm, we put your name on a list and when it comes back in, we save it for you."
Me- "Oh. So how do I just keep checking every so often?"
Librarian- Now talking to me like I'm 4. "No. We email you."
Me- Still totally oblivious. "Then what?"

She went on to explain, very slowly, how this all worked. She even mentioned I could go online and add books to my reserve list. I thought to myself, "Holy crap, this is awesome!" I promptly went home and added books to my cue, and in a moment of curiosity tried a few titles I'd been wanting to read. I'd always hated trying to find books at the library (well, since I found out they have bestsellers and such) because I liked fancy displays at Barnes and Noble and Amazon to tell me what I'll like. So I opened up B&N.com and searched for books then added them on. I was so excited about this concept! I told Dan when he got home from work, and he looked at me like I was an idiot. Kinda like the librarian did. (Like I said, his mom worked at a library.)

Anyway, I have since gotten 2 books from my list and have one still holding for me. I'm going to save a lot of money, and I learned something new too!

Go ahead; laugh at me. I know you want to.