Nose Buried in a Book

[**boring post alert**]

The locals know that there were major cutbacks in the county library system over the last couple years, leading to the closing of a number of library branches.

Now back last summer Ironwolf and I were talking with the parents of a friend about the impending closing of the branch nearest our home. Well, more like arguing than talking, but that's ok. *grin*

This couple was steadfastly opposing the closing of this branch, which was a very small library but it saw a fair bit of usage due to its being next to the high school. So they asked us if we opposed it as well.

Our answer was pretty much "Hell, no!". In the ensuing discussion we defended our position by noting that it was known that there would be a major library budget crunch several years in advance, and that we supported the consolidation of these small libraries into larger, more comprehensive libraries with up-to-date facilities (resulting in less overhead and salary costs) - and in fact, a couple years earlier, there was state funding available to do just that in our town, and for some reason the town refused.

The point is, as much as we loved our neighborhood libraries, reality does indeed rear its ugly head at times, and you have to make some considered decisions.

Well, after the attempts of my friends' parents and others to keep the library open failed, they decided to start up a non-profit corporation to run the building as an independent reading room. After much negotiation with the county, town, etc. they succeeded and the new reading room, Brighton Place, opened about six weeks ago.

I figured, good for them to try to make something useful out of this mess. So we joined, which costs the family $35/year, but I figure it's for a worthy cause. They did a nice job sprucing up the place and getting the wireless hotspot in, and I've already taken the kids to a couple different programs.

I am happy to report that I am actually using this membership (unlike some other things I've signed up for in the past) and that it means that I'm actually reading books again. A few of you may recall my endeavor to read some of the classics (which I posted about in my old blog). Well, that didn't go so well. LOL Oh, I got a few things read, but I found that reading novels on the PC was a pain in the butt.

Well, right now I'm not doing the classics, although maybe I'll get back to that - but I do have a couple recommendations for you in the young adult/fantasy realm:

• Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce: a compilation of four books (First Test, Page, Squire, and Lady Knight) featuring the tale of the first girl in the kingdom who trains to become a knight. I could not put it down - yeah, it's girl-oriented, but it's got a great set of characters a la Harry Potter.
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini: you've probably heard of this novel written by a 15-year-old wunderkind. It's actually a nice, solid fantasy tale (esp. if you like McCaffery), although it does rely on a lot of fantasy stereotypes. It also seemed like most of the main characters were unconscious half the time! *chuckle* I'll pick up the sequel if it comes into the reading room.

I'm not quite sure why I rambled on like that just to give you a couple half-baked book recommendations, but there you go. Enjoy.