Do you use your library?

[CuriousMama]

I use mine all the time and I've just finished reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and have now ordered (online from my library) The Passage, by Justin Cronin and Me before you by Jojo Moyes.

I'm always there but am amazed how underused they are? Ours is only small and I'll be gutted if it closes.

My 20 week old has his own ticket, his sister loves chooses books for him. I end up staggering up to the counter and making 4 separate piles each with a ticket on the top.

Bless her Indith that's lovely.

Books may be fairly cheap,but library books are free.Even new hardback books are free,and I'd never buy a hardback new so it is nice to get the pleasure of reading one occasionally
I use my library all the time - charity shops are ok if you are happy to read anything,and it is fantastic to find something you have been wanting to read,but mostly the choice is pretty limited.Our library service lets you order for 35p,and if you are prepared to pay more you can order from the SE library network,not just the county.Fantastic if you want to find a particular book,and much cheaper than buying something online which might turn out to be not quite what you wanted! I love libaries...

I think some people have a problem when they have to travel then pay for parking though POC. I'm lucky my library is a stone's throw from me.

gamerwidow Thanks for that. I did have a Sony reader but jettisoned it when I got my kindle. I'll wait and see what the selections like, but think I will end up getting an ePub reader.

I love my library. Well not as much now it self-serve and they are taking away the budget for the art and craft stuff and they now charge 10p for a photocopied sheet for the kids to colour in....

But I still love it. I love being able to order ( for free) and renew on-line.

They charge in the mobile libraries, or they did 75p, but then you wouldn't get fines in the mobiles.

Yep, at least once a week, sometimes as much as four times a week.

I reserve online from county stock (for free) and go and pick it up when I get a text message. I have a 'save list' of 30 books waiting to be transferred to my 'reserved list' (library says you can only reserve 25 at a time). I check my reserve list daily to see what number I am on the list, what is now available to me and check for any interesting new books on the website.

The children's section is fab with loads of choice and variety (picture books, first readers, middle readers and YA), big comfy sofas, regular song times and regularly replenished stock.

Plus there is a monthly booksale where you can get 6 children's books for £1.

I have got my Amazon wishlist down from 1000 speculative books to 100 books I definitely want to read, which is also good for my bank balance. Read a lot of stinkers that looked good on Amazon but I am glad I didn't buy.

I love my local library

We live on the borders of three counties and can use libraries in each one. I tend to use the library in our town as it is quite big and well stocked but the smaller library over the border has a brilliant childrens section so the DC prefer that one. We're also doing the summer reading challenge and go to any events there.

Great to hear

R2 you certainly love to read Can you recommend anything for me after I've read the 2 I have on order? I just read Harold Fry, have ordered The Passage and Me before you.

I LOVE my local library, and usually have about 10 books checked out at any one time. You can order for free and they have a really good stock. I'll often read a review of a book that sounds good in the weekend papers, and within a week or two they will have the book if I request it. I can end up waiting quite a while for requests to come through, but I don't mind as I've never run out of stuff to read, and I'm reassured that lots of people are using the library so hopefully it's not under threat.

Mind you, DD(4) tends to moan "Not the library again'' as she knows it's not always easy to drag me out...

I can also be more adventurous in my choices, taking a risk on a book I may or may not like. I hate it when I've bought a book and find out it's not as enjoyable as I expected. With a library book, nothing lost!

I love the library...used to spend hours there as a teenager and popped in this morning.
I read about 4-5books a week, and order about 10books a month from Amazon, but get a lot of thrillers from the library. We are very lucky and have 2 closeby.
In fact dd and her friend are currently watching Bridesmaids on dvd...2 dvds for 1.50. Can't go wrong.

yes. its excellent. they have a book train for the kids and have reading hours and other events on. I rarely get a chance to read though, so I always owe them money for overdue books!

We go to our local library at least once a week. DCs love getting new books, and in fact we more or less only read their library ones - the books on their bookshelves are gathering dust!

Our library is very small and only open about 10hours a week, but its great. The staff are lovely, the book selection is changed regularly, and they have lots of childrens activities on throughout the year, and even more in the summer hols.

Not for fiction for me, no. Mainly because I've got a Kindle and have stocked it up with free classics or 99p deals of the day.

I do however borrow non-fiction, cookery books, knitting books, parenting stuff etc and I take DS regularly.

When I was a teenager I used to go every week, check out 6 books (the maximum allowed) read them all before the following week and repeat.

I'm not sure if we can get dvds from ours? off to check

I don't, purely because I'm terrible at remembering to take books back
I have ended up with so many ££££ fines that now I just buy books and the kids use the school library.
For DVDs/films we have Netflix and Apple Tv that we use all the time.

We have Netflix too.

I just ordered a dvd from the one in the town thanks for reminding me MrsRDHR

I don't use our library for DVDs - at £3 a pop, even for old ones, it's not worth it.

We can get DVD's 50 p a night, some children's ones are 20p

CuriousMama- I do indeed love to read .

I'm not very good at recommendations though unless you like zombies, post-apocalyptic (in which case see here), dystopian, YA, social history (especially medical, mental health, punishment, sex/childbirth) or fantasy (not political but character driven stuff with female main characters and a good love story).

I'm not very keen on popular or modern fiction, I tend to get the occasional novel from the library to remind myself why, forget the plot and the book as soon as I have finished.

yes R2PeePoo you have different taste to me Maybe I should broaden my horizons a bit though?

OOh yes.borrow about 10 plus a month
Order online,love getting new books.Trawl Amazon for suggested reads and ones I have seen reviewed,order on library website and collect few days later.They charge £1 here,but woth it as I read avidly.

Broadening horizons is what the library is excellent for (see linking back to this thread a bit there), I read a lot of stuff that I wasn't gripped by and didn't really enjoy when I was younger, but thanks to the library I really could explore what I liked and hated.

I don't look like the sort of person to enjoy a nice gory zombie novel though, so I do get lots of raised eyebrows when I pull World War Z or Zombie Apocalypse out of my handbag in the playground .