By: Dwana Pinchock

I love libraries. I’ve been going to the library since, I can’t even remember. We had a very small library when I was a child that was an old church, and it was only open during the day. My dad would take me there because he was a stay-at-home dad. You had to walk up a long, very narrow flight of wooden stairs to enter the building. They were open during the day, and then when they got a bigger facility, they were open at night.

As I grew older, my mom and I would go to get books every two weeks. I would take sign language classes there too. As I got older, I graduated from the children’s library to the adult library. When I eventually had my own car, I would drive to the library and check library books out, because we didn’t have a lot of money growing up. It wasn’t in the budget to buy books.

Growing up, the library gave me an opportunity to read far beyond anything my family could have ever afforded. The library was a place to go and find all sorts of history and science fiction and biographies – all different types of books. There’s very little I don’t find interesting to read. For me, I love being able to read something and think, “You know what? I don’t like that. That’s not a book for me,” without worrying that I spent $30 on a book. You have a chance to see what you like. You can “test drive” books.

Now I really know what I like to read, and I like going into the library to find what’s new. I love to see what I haven’t read yet and find something new to read now.