Summer Reading

 I'm pretty certain that this girl is walking back from the library with some summer reading in hand. I never technically had summer reading assignments, but I have a little addiction to books and the library is one of the few places my parent's felt comfortable dropping me off for a few hours.

Parents want their kids to enjoy the library, but with all those suspicious librarians around, trying to corral you into the kids or YA section where they can keep an eye on you  it always felt like a form of rebellion, especially with friends. You get past the guards and sneak off into the depths of the library. Nobody knows where you are or what you're doing. You could be reading anything (no, seriously, anything). They don't know. You could meet up with anyone. They don't know. Heck, you don't know.

So in short, it was awesome.

My love affair with the library has waned a little bit since living in Indiana. The towns are smaller and so are the libraries. Worse, you can only get a card for your town. If you live in the city limits. If you don't live within the city limits of any town (a common occurrence here in the corn-field of America) - no books for you.  Should you desire access to other libraries you must pay for a non resident card, which can cost as much as $92 per year. or a PLAC, for the whole state. This year's is $50 - my local library did not advertise this option.

In Ohio you could get a card for any library. Or every library. They didn't care.
My mom had cards for at least four Ohio libraries and one more for a Florida library we went to during vacations every two years!

Indiana, free with guns, stingy with books.