I love books and I never seem to have enough of them surrounding me! Spiritual books, personal growth books, how-to books, inspirational stories, biographies, travel books, fiction, and more, can be found throughout my home. In addition to the words contained in books, I love their smell and how they feel as I hold them. When we moved to Colorado from California, I believe the heaviest portion of our load were the boxes of books I could not part with!
What has changed in my life is that I now have become a library lover as well! I now only purchase books which I want to be able to mark up–highlight and write in–or books I’ve read that I want my daughters to read someday. All other books, which are the majority, come from our local library. If you are not using your library system, now is a great time to get started! The library system gives you access to all the books within your county along with those found in your town’s library. By going online, you can browse the catalog of books in your county, place them on hold, and have them delivered to your local library for pickup. It is a wonderful system to use.
In addition to books, you can find audio books, CDs and DVDs. Many of the movies we watch or the music we listen to comes from the library. I especially enjoy listening to audio books as I drive longer distances–listening to a great fictional story is a wonderful way to be entertained while driving. If you own an iPod, you can download the audio CDs to your iPod to listen to at your leisure. I like being able to download a self-improvement book so I can listen to it whenever I need that particular message.
Many of us do own books which we will never read or refer to again. Instead of throwing them in the garbage (please, oh please, never throw away a book!), there are alternatives to letting go of your reading materials. If you have books you wish to discard, the following is information published by the “Friends of Colorado Libraries.” This is a great place to start.
Disposal of Weeded, Discarded, and Unwanted Books
We are so fortunate to have a system which supports the sharing of resources. Please support your city and county’s library system by becoming a patron! You’re helping the earth at the same time!
