the unabridged reader

I have finally ventured into our local library and registered!

Dan has been telling me to go visit for months now, but I kept on procrastinating. Apologies, but I was rather preoccupied with my crocheting and sewing obsession so reading was not my priority for the longest time (exceptforfanfictions, oh and except for that one time we made vlogs about reading Jane Eyre).

Now, I present to you, the Max Webber Library in Blacktown.

Image from Blacktown City Libraries.

Library 101 (?)

We entered the library and I felt a little silly telling one of the librarians that we wanted to register. I just feel like registering at the library is something that is done from childhood. You know, the way Matilda did? But anyway, we can’t all be magical little beings who’s good at Math, no? So we headed to one of the computers and filled out the form. A second librarion processed it and gave us our card. Dan also got a new one because his old one was apparently.. how do you call it? Obsolete! lol.

Here is my library card, with my personal borrower number at the back.

And with that borrower number, my life was blessed with thousands of free physical books, audiobooks, ebooks, tv shows (!), and movies! If it were not already obvious, they are free to borrow, and must be returned within a set of time (usually 3 weeks).

As we browsed the shelves, we bumped into the first librarian we spoke to, and he asked us whether we have successfully registered. We affirmed, and I thought it was pretty nice of him to greet us and follow up. It makes me want to work as a librarian more and more! Must be a pretty good career because all the librarians I’ve met are pretty chill and happy. So I actually looked into it and learned that you needed to complete a course to become a librarian. That is both interesting and disappoining, as it kind of popped my librarian dream bubble- Because it costs around A$6500!!! If anybody else knows a pathway to this career that does not require me to shell out thousands of dollars, please do contact me!

Perks!

By registering, I had full access to the following:

• Libby for ebooks
• Hoopla for ebooks, audiobooks, comics, movies, magazines, music
• Borrow Box for ebooks and audiobooks
• Physical books – including mangas- I actually saw a bunch of Fairy Tail volumes in there!

I might have missed some perks- but these are what I’ve been using so far!

How To Choose Books

How to choose books, question mark. To be honest, I have probably a hundred TBRs, including the books I want to re-read, on my Kindle. And now, suddenly, thousands of books became instantly available to me. So how???

On that first day, we just scanned the first level of the library. I headed over to the fiction section and I was instantly overwhelmed. I felt better when I told myself I can always come back and choose another one. I often felt paralised when shopping for a new book at bookstores. Books are pretty expensive and we also don’t have a lot of space at home, so I don’t want to spend $30 on a book that I will be disappointed in and will end up donating or giving away. I do believe in supporting hard-working authors, but I do not have an infinite amount of money to spend on books that are not for me. For many reasons, I prefer to only have my favourite books on our current shelf. Until! We move into a house with a bigger space to fit all the books my heart desires.

I went around the fiction shelves and I couldn’t figure out how they were arranged. Not by genre, because I saw books from one shelf having different coloured stickers. Every colour represents a genre- I think it was green for fantasy, then orange for mystery?

I just scanned through the titles and picked out the ones that caught my attention. Generally, I returned books set in the 60s and earlier because I felt it was too much brain cells required for what I wanted. Then I also returned books where locations are very specific. I usually find those stories referencing to small cultural details that I don’t understand. This is why I prefer fiction most of the time, since most details are made up and explained within the book.

Then we moved over to the classics aisle. I saw The Winter’s Tale and quickly plucked it. The only Shakespeare work that I read was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I loved it. But I know The Winter’s Tale was where Hermione’s name was derived from so I’ve been meaning to read it as well. Then I saw “Fabulous Monsters”. Never heard of it before. It was a random pick. Read through a couple of pages and liked it! Wrapping it up is “Writers as Readers”. I didn’t read the summary for this because I felt like the title spoke for itself. And since I was planning on getting back to writing, I thought it would be a good read!

I know it was pretty ambituous for a 3-week deadline- but we are free to extend it anyway so that’s what I’ll do in case I don’t finish them. I’m in the middle for Week 2 and I’ve only finished 1/5 books!

The Chosen Ones

• Copycat – a mystery novel that I finished in 2 days- thanks to Hoopla! I believe there is a 10-book limit per month for Hoopla. I didn’t think I’ll be able to use up all of it at this point, so I was happy to finish part 2 and 3 of Copycat on Hoopla even though I already had the physical copy with me. Why, you ask? Read my review to know!
• Fairydale – I haven’t started it yet. As far as I know, it’s not a series. The title caught my eye as it reminded me of the series Once Upon a Time. The beginning of the story is pretty similar too. The main character was an orphan that was led to a small mysterious town due to circumstances. Enter handsome love interest #1 and #2. Sprinkle in some paranormal activities and horror themes, then we’ve got a Twilight mash up. I just realised it now. I wonder if I’ll end up finishing it- it’s pretty long with a smashing 772 pages!
• Fabulous Monsters – I have read the preface and the first chapter and I love it! It’s not a quick read, so I think I will be buying my own copy. Alberto talks about how classic characters in literature become a huge part of who we are. The only caveat for me is that I haven’t read all of the books that he mentions. Sometimes, inferring works but sometimes I need to look up plot summaries or character analisation to completely digest what he is saying. Can’t wait to finish this book and dive into more of similar authors works!
• The Winter’s Tale
• Writers as Readers – Okay, I just finished checking Goodreads for the summary. It’s a collection of book recommendations from prominent writers. Oh boy. That just means more TBRs T_T