Chicago Public Library

Day 117.

Props to the library-inventors. In 1833, the first tax-supported library in the country opened at Peterborough, N.H. And the rest is literally, history.

I am grateful for libraries.

Each time I go (and we go often - often enough to get a million books rotating through our house, but not often enough to avoid late fines most of the time), I experience something new. I find a new section of books that I didn't know were classified together. I find a new children's author that I hadn't yet been exposed to. I find another librarian that is sadly not interested in people, or...more specifically...children.

I always walk home from the library feeling good about my country, my city, and the world. I feel grateful for the free entertainment that comes from library. Ok, so the library storytime isn't fantastic, but heck, it's free. And they really are TRYING. So, I leave with a heap of damaged books, full of germs from others' houses (is it normal that I think about how many germs must be on library books when they are sitting amongst my sheets?), and am happy. Because that was an outing I just did sans car, sans cash, and sans meltdown.