10 Little Things

1. Flashlight under the pillow, always! My parents would have to take away my book so that I would do my homework. I slept with a flashlight under my pillow for years so that I could sneak in a few hours of ‘fun reading’ once everyone was asleep. Always gave me a little thrill that I was rebelling and staying awake long past my official bedtime.

2. Story time! My favorite part of elementary school was story time after lunch recess- teacher read aloud... Or was it back scratch trains that we all made? I had wonderful elementary school teachers who really instilled a love of reading. I remember fondly listening to books like the PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, THE LITTLE PRINCE, HARRY POTTER, CHRONICLES OF NARNIA and many others during that after recess reading time. It was meant to calm us down after the rambunctious recess, but I truly looked forward to the stories each day.

3. Belle was my favorite disney princess, and she was given a library as a gift!! Belle really is the most literary minded of the princesses. She escapes to books and rereads her favorites. I love doing just that. She is thrilled by the gift of a library from the Beast and it really shows what kinds of things she values.

4. Scholastic book catalog orders. Before the days of Amazon, we used to order books the old fashioned way! I loved getting the overly colorful, flimsy catalogs and pouring over them in hopes of convincing my mom that I NEEDED those books. Then the shrink wrapped books would arrive at school and it was like a mini holiday. New stories, adventures and new worlds to discover!

5. In my family we never did Christmas lists. My parents didn’t want to encourage an entitled, present-oriented holiday season so we didn’t stress too much about the gift part. But one year my mom was stumped and asked what I wanted and I answered- BOOKS! So they proceeded to add to the family collection with many, many classics. Unfortunately for my siblings, and fortunately for me and the family library, my parents went a little overboard and had to start wrapping the books for the other kids to make things look more even. I was thrilled to have so many new books to read and my siblings were disenchanted by the idea of wrapped presents as they were books... books for their big sister.

6. Preppy clothes. To say I’m obsessed with J.Crew is an understatement. I am not sure what instigated the love of preppy clothes but they are my go-to style and seem like an easy option to look classy and put together. Thankfully librarian style and business casual go hand in hand with preppy clothes.

7. Organizing. I have always had a knack for having a lot of stuff but also the gift of organizing that stuff into manageable, even beautifully arranged spaces. As a kid I would love to have a full overhaul of my room, completely tearing it apart and organizing everything from my junk box, re-organizing and folding my clothes, my bookshelves, to under my bed. I started from a young age keeping my clothes in rainbow order. On numerous occasions I would actually rearrange the all the furniture in my room too. My mom would always be surprised that I could move my heavy wooden furniture but I had it down to a science and revelled in the fresh feng shui of my room. As librarians we don’t do these things per se but weeding and collection development is a great source of accomplished and focused organizing.

8. Glasses. This goes along with the preppy clothes idea. I always wanted glasses growing up. I would try on everyone’s and always try on tons whenever I was at a store with frames. My parents eyes started to change for the worse in college, and sure enough mine took a turn for the worse too. And I was thrilled! :) Glasses are not my everyday look but I love that I can have my own real ones when I want to.

9. Arthur says having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card. If you’ve seen this musical episode, you have experienced the instant stuck-in-your-head ability of this song. It’s cheesy and great, and marks a generation of kids who watched arthur, wanted to read and wanted their own library card. I was definitely a part of this group!

10. Bringing books when I travel. I am notorious for overpacking in general but I always manage to bring too many books. I anticipate that I will read or study on the plane or in the car and it never quite happens. On my study abroad to France I brought the big thick unabridged version of LES MISERABLES. I just had to finish it while living in Paris!