Saturday April 11: Weekly update, +1 entry for participating. Topic: Books you would like to suggest to your library.

This week I actually managed to complete my first book of April. It was Amy Poehler's "Yes Please" I wont go too much into it, you can find my review on Goodreads or here. My short opinion on the book is you should go into it viewing it like your vodka aunt giving you life advice instead of "I want to know what Amy Poehler's favorite color was when she was 5." Cause you're not gonna know, she makes it a point to let you know she doesn't like to share personal information.

She does however give some pretty valid advice, especially for young girls. (I would have much rather had a chapter on her "Amy Poehler's Smart Girls" than why she hates cell phones.)

And now for this week's topic: Books you would like to suggest to your library.

This is tricky. I'm fairly new to my library so I haven't had a chance to go through their entire collection to really find anything they don't have. The other issue is my library is apart of the Central Libraries Consortium which is made up of 14 central Ohio libraries which means I can reserve and checkout books from all 14 libraries and they have a total of 4.5 million items. So, I mean if I can come up with something they don't have it would be pretty surprising.

That being said, there is one topic in which I have noticed my library is lacking. A couple months ago I got kinda obsessed with genealogy. This was partly brought on by my mother getting me into Outlander. That makes sense when you realize my mother's maiden name is Walker (like the cookies) so we're apart of the Wallace Clan (like the Mel Gibson movie). This was also around the time I had finally crossed the aisle from my beloved fiction section into the non-fiction stacks.

This is what I found:

From that white book on the top shelf on the far left to the second book of the bottom row is the entire section of books devoted to Scotland in the library (that would be 13 books in total). IRELAND has 2 whole shelves and Scotland can't even make up half of one. Also, 95% of the books are travel books written pre-2000.

I understand I can simply request a book from another library, but it's just depressing to see.

It all came together when I managed to finish a book just two days after getting an email that one of my requested books had arrived at the library. Perfect timing to go. While I've been chipping away at "The Greatest Traitor" by Ian Mortimer, for April I have two books that I've really just started.

Literally just started Yes Please by Amy Poehler cause it was the book I picked up Thursday. I've read Tina Fey's "Boosypants" and while I typically like to think of myself as a Tina (since I'm not nearly as optimistic as Amy) I'm getting on with Amy cause we had similar upbringing. The entire chapter of looking for danger and coming up with stories of danger as a child was basically my childhood. I used to pretend I was in trouble even when I wasn't just cause there was literally nothing else to do. I feel you Amy.

Now for the #ReadingMyLibrary challenge this week we're to tell you a bit about our libraries. Mine is fairly new to me. I just moved, you see. And to be honest, as I mentioned in my last post, I was not a frequenter of my hometown library. Technically, I have four libraries within 5 miles of my house. This is just the one I frequent more. I might do another post as my second most frequent library recently got a brand new building.

It's apart of the Ohio Library system, so while not apart of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system we can still request books from it. It's a modest 2 story library, a far cry from my beautiful 11 story campus library I was used to for 4 years. 

Sadly, when I was there someone was sitting at the table I typically occupy so I took a picture of my second most visited area. The study area balcony over the video section. I prefer the tables in the back of the stacks, it's a lot more quiet back there as most people don't walk back there. And typically little kids run around under the balcony. 

And just for nostalgia sake. My campus library, my beautiful Thompson Library, recently named as the second most beautiful college library in the country (on some list by someone, but I agree).

I will admit I used to have a weird problem with libraries. I've since blamed it on my hometown being small and in the Bible belt so our library, as I one day told my mother, "Doesn't have a book published after 1982". Despite this I used to spend a lot of time there as a child, it was a good place for a single mother to drop her daughter off during the summer. Since moving to the city I have joined two libraries and checked out more books than I did the entire span of my later adolescence (junior high and high school).

So, in an attempt to combine two of my new hobbies I will be participating in the Reading My Library Challenge taking place in the month of April 2015. A month long celebration of libraries, including a library scavenger hunt the week of April 15-30 and a giveaway! You can find out more about the challenge here.

The three books in the "TBR" list for April are



(I'm currently reading two other books from the library but I'm well into them)