Hi everyone. Happy Sunday! The new novel is coming along nicely even though I was getting frustrated with it for a minute. But that moment has passed thank goodness and I’m still moving forward. You know I just moved last December and I haven’t even had a chance to get a new library card from the local library in this town. The pandemic kind of ruined that. How many of you remember going to the library as a child? For those of you who truly love books, you already know that the library is like a goldmine for books on anything and everything. But with e-Books and e-readers taking precedence over the traditional paper book and closing the libraries due to Covid-19, I fear that one of my favorite past times may be coming to an end.

When I was in grade school, going to the library was a part of the curriculum. It was one of the activities that got me excited every week because it took us away from the regular boring class time for an hour and it allowed us a chance to go to the school library and go digging for gold. Now for a little kid like me, gold was a shiny new book to read of my choice that I could take out with my very own school library card. 

There were so many great books to read that it was hard to pick just one or two. I wanted to take them all home or just move into the public library until I was finished reading every book they had. The library was also a place of refuge for me. I used to get bullied a lot back in those days and the library was always the one place I could go to find peace. Nobody ever messed with me in there and it was where I felt the safest. The librarians were always watching out for us little kids too.

My love for the library never died and to this very day, I still call it home, regardless of what library it is or where it’s located. If I had to choose between paper books and e-Books, then paper books would win, hands down. I guess I’m just old school. I love book covers and holding a book in my hand. Especially when it’s brand new. Even the smell of a new book gets me excited. Okay, enough of that.

With the number of germs that can be left on a library book after being used repeatedly by thousands of people, how can we save our books from becoming casualties of the pandemic? Is it even possible? Or are we just supposed to not worry about that when libraries all around the world do finally reopen?

The pandemic has changed everybody’s lives over the past few months and not for the better. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who misses going to their local library among other places that have closed. And eventually, these questions will have to be addressed. You can’t simply wash a book without destroying it with water and disinfectant. The last thing I want to see is a big book burning out of fear of infecting the masses. But it is something to think about. Would our children be exposed to the virus if they handle the books available to the public in a library? Would libraries be forced to become victims of mass closures like our stores? Or just evolve into another digital oasis of e-book availability? I shudder to think it’s the latter.

Have a great week everyone.

Until next time and happy reading…