Friday Review: A Place I Haven’t Been in a While

On my way home from the office yesterday, I darkened the doors of a place I haven’t been in a while: the public library. When I was throwing some things out recently, I stumbled upon my old library card. The card sat in my car for a while. And today I used it. Anticipating upcoming travels, I thought I would allow amazon.com or Apple’s iBooks service to flounder without me for a few weeks and get a couple of library books.

How long had it been since I last visited a library? I’m not sure. But the librarian laughed when I presented my card and said that it had expired in 2009. 2009 was the year that I purchased my Kindle and began helping Amazon and Audible pay their mortgage. When I noted this to the librarian, she laughed at me again and said that I can check out ebooks and audio books through the library and put them on my Kindle. Yesterday, I picked up Sam Harris’ Waking Up.

This morning, I logged onto Georgia’s Library System. Within minutes, I was logged on to their ebook/audiobook borrowing section. And minutes after that, I was redirected to the Amazon site, where I clicked a couple of things and a library book was on my Kindle. I downloaded the biography of Elon Musk where I will hope to feel optimistic about the future of technology in America and The Garden of Beasts, where I anticipate I will find parallels to the modern American political climate.

I may be the last person to this party. If I am, don’t roll your eyes. Just take pity. If you still aren’t at the party, go and visit a public library. It turns out they’ve changed with the times.