The Library

I love libraries. Because of that and because I'm cheap I used to take the kids there as our regular outing. As soon as they could walk, we would go and they would pick out their own books. I would try to grab something for myself but with 4 kids under 5 that didn't always happen. I would give young parents my piece of advice which is count how many books total leave with you to go home! Then there is none of this "now how many did each of you pick out?" I think it's a bit of a thrill for kids to do this on their own and yes it usually seems to foster reading. Obviously you go through periods in your life when you have more reading time. When the kids are small you might even have zero time for books but at least you can read to them.

Maybe the best thing about being retired is there is almost no limit to your reading time. You can EVEN read during the day. [Sleeping til you wake up is a close second]There are tons of good books out there. It's really a case of can I get these all read before you know.

We have a great library here in a very small town (no stoplight). Any book I read a review about and want to get is able to be ordered from the library. They get it, call me and, get this ,I pick it up by walking in and they hand it to me. I don't need my card anymore. This has got to be a small town thing. It certainly is my thrill for the day.

We have Great Books Discussion Group here that meets every Thursday and we are sloughing through all the Great Books. Sometimes they are hard to read and stick with but the discussions which are 2 hours long, are always stimulating.

Back to the advice thing that I previously wrote about...If my now grown kids asked me for just one piece of advice on raising their kids, I would say "Take them to your local library."