Support your local library

On Friday I called into my local library in Grangemouth.  Over Christmas I had bought Elizabeth Moon’s The Deed of Paksenarrion, the omnibus edition of a fantasy trilogy.  I really liked it and, seeing she had written quite a number of other books I looked her up on the library website, ordered a couple, got email confirmation that they were in, then went along and picked them up.  I read one of them on Friday night!

Not only would buying theses books have been expensive but I honestly don’t have room to store all the books I would like to read.  Libraries are also great places to browse – both for fiction and non fiction.  Unlike in a bookshop where I have to be pretty sure I will like a book to buy it in the library if I am unsure I will borrow it anyway – no harm done if it is not my cup of tea.  If I am researching new a wargames project the library is always a great resource – what they don’t have they can usually get.

Despite all I have said above I don’t visit as often as I would like.  In the UK the library service is funded by local councils whose budgets are under a lot of pressure at the moment, so they need to justify their existence or they will disappear.  I have decided to make a concerted attempt to borrow more books and have set myself the target of reading 52 library books this year.

One final benefit arising from my library visit on Friday – I picked up the Osprey Vanguard title Armour of the Vietnam Wars from their for sale section for 30p.  I never could resist a bargain.