Public libraries serve as an example of a truly beneficial use of public funds. Open to all, the buildings beckon the reader to enter and explore, at no additional charge beyond the tax dollars that all must submit. Voracious readers can consume words to their heart's delight, without having to be able to afford the cost of three or four books per week.
Pick up a book and bring it home. If you don't like it, if it doesn't grab you (although it must have garnered the love of some literary agent somewhere), you simply take it back and you've not lost much beyond a few minutes of your time. Test out a genre that you might not otherwise choose, if you had to buy the book and were not certain to like it after all. Again, it's essentially free. Those of us trying to get published can take advantage of the vast and varied assortment of novels to help us learn how to do the writing that gets published; the struggling author can examine word by word, line by line, paragraph by paragraph to determine how to hook a reader.
There's more to the library than books. Readers can check out a few soothing or stimulating tunes to play in the background as they enjoy their hobby. Interest in a particular area, a must for the writer of historical fiction, can be explored with the music of the era in question, to better get a feel for the age and how the drawing room might have sounded during a country dance or a formal ball.
Don't feel like reading? The well-stocked library has a collection of DVDs and tapes. Always fun to observe the fashions of the 1930's, the dream world of the rich that played out on movie screens for those who were dirt poor.
Should you find yourself with time to kill, there's always the magazine collection at the public library to provide some free amusement. And besides, it's warm and dry in the library, and who wants to wait out in the rain or the snow? Most times, it's also a quiet place, a respite from the screech and honk of big city traffic.
The modern public library is a very user-friendly place, and some young people are finding unique uses for those dusty, quiet, secluded stacks. Raul Tapia of Woodstock, Illinois took his sixteen-year-old girlfriend to the local library, to make use of all that it offered. Sixteen being below the age of consent, however, the unfortunate Raul was arrested.
For all that one can do in a library, having sex is not one of them. Perhaps there was some romance in the air, or maybe Raul and his jail-bait lover were overly aroused by the covers in the romance section. Overcome with passion, inspired by the rows of bodice-rippers, the young lovers did what came naturally, without having the sense to hide in the bathroom while engaging in coitus.
Martha Hansen, the Woodstock library network administrator, won't say where exactly the coupling took place, no doubt for fear that some other starry-eyed couple will try the same thing. And just so you know, she's not about to let this sort of thing happen again.
Raul is no doubt an avowed non-reader these days, seeing as he's facing up to a year in jail...and the unparalleled envy and praise of his mates.
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