Okay. I know what you’re thinking. What the fuck kind of cop out post is this that Q-FI is slanging up here? Was he too lazy to write a real post this week?
Hold your horses and let me get into it. If you still think it’s a waste of time at the end, let me have it. Just keep in mind that I know people… hahaha. J/k. I’m a hermit and know no one anymore. I even got excited the other day to drive my car for errands because I get out of the house so little working from home. Hahaha.
But I digress…
Library – la biblioteca – that building full of books that only homeless people go in to use the free internet and bathroom (at least in LA).
Why would I write about it?
Because COVID made me change.
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Let’s take a step back first.
If you’re reading this blog, which I know you are, because the little internet elves that live inside my computer and work 24 hours in tracking websites spit out some figures to me here and there (and you thought your phone tracking was bad!). And if you’re taking the time out of your own day and consciously making the effort to consume something as outlandish as my madman’s dreams, then I know you are a hardcore bibliomaniac.
Whether you realize it or not, you are a closet bookworm, or blogworm, or whatever. And I’m going to safely wager that this is most of you out there.
Now, when it comes to consuming the almighty page myself, I’m not super old in age, but I am “old school” when it comes to books. I like to read actual real physical books. I must have them.
For my MBA between 2010-2013, all my classmates were buying much cheaper Kindle versions (this was still in that golden age when they were less expensive, good ol’ Amazon caught onto that one fast) rather than those clunky, enormous hard copy textbooks.
But not me. On no, not me by a long shot. I needed to feel the weight of the written word in my hand.
I hated reading e-books on a Kindle or iPad reader, especially textbooks. Because when it came to learning, I was in it… neck fucking deep in it. I was riding into battle like a deranged medieval knight trampling the alphabet, that trusty highlighter my sword, post-it notes my battered shield. Hacking off the legs of verbs, chopping off an arm of a pronoun, I was going to carve up that textbook as if it were the holy grail of meaning and my whimsy life depended on it.
Then there was my personal epic fantasy self-built home library (which my wife hated, and probably was overkill due to my addictive personality). I had not one bookshelf, but multiple, filled to the roof with epic fantasy series. Why? Because I liked books, had to have them. And let me tell you, there was no way I was ever going to change my ways.
Then COVID hit.
Prior to the ‘rona, I had this weird obsession, that I needed to own my books. Why? Not really sure. I think it was just how I had grown up, kind of like I still like to own my MP3’s rather than subscribe to a music streaming service.
But why did I need to own them? How often did I ever re-read a book?
Honestly, barely ever.
Yet, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we get to COVID let me tell you a little library tale from 2019…
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There’s this book in the FI community that you might have heard of, Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin.
I fucking hate this book – with a passion. Hahaha.
And it’s nothing against Vicki, nor her content, because in my first post ever on this blog, I mention her book and laud it. It’s an entirely personal vendetta against my own incompetence…
Back in 2019, I’d listen to a lot of FIRE podcasts. And most hosts would usually end up asking their guest this question in some form or variation, “hey man (or gal), what’s your best life hack to share with our listeners?”
And almost like clockwork, many of them would answer, “the library.”
And I would blow my lid. The library? What kind of cop out answer is that? The fucking library? C’mon now!
No one goes to the fucking library anymore!
But the more I heard this answer, the more curious I became – it was almost like I was being gaslighted. I began to question myself. When was the last time I had actually checked out a library book?
Reflecting a little, it came to me that it had been during my undergrad days way back in 2004. I had gone about 15 years without stepping foot inside a single library.
Wow. That is a long time!
So, I thought, maybe it was time to have an open mind and take a stroll to my local library? I had a vacation coming up and needed a good book to read.
Perfect timing. And that’s what I did.
I sauntered down to my local library, signed up for a new card because I couldn’t find my old one (you try to keep track of something you don’t use for 15 years), and checked out, Your Money or your Life by Vicki Robin.
And it must have been fate. It was as if the library had bought a brand-new copy just for me. I don’t think anyone had read it yet – this bright yellow paper-pack was in mint condition.
Well, sometimes that can be a harbinger of what is to come.
Long story short, this vacation happened to be on a lake. One day I’m sitting on the shore reading with my feet in the water and I place the book on a heavy log that was holding an umbrella – thinking there was no way this thing could ever tip over. I get up to grab something and cue the blasphemous winds of irony, some mega fucking gale comes out of nowhere and knocks over the log and my book in the water.
It’s fucking ruined.
Fuck.
I look at the price on the back and it says $14.99. So I think to myself, I’ll just have to buy it now from the library. On my return, when I bring the book back to the library, they not only charge me for the book, but also a replacement fee and a restocking fee. My free library book now cost me $35. Hahaha.
Now, that’s not that much in the scheme of things, but I was pissed off.
I should have been pissed off at myself, but instead I took it out on the library and that stupid yellow book! How dare they! This is what I get for trusting a FI hack on some stupid podcast.
No more library books for me.
That experiment was done and had failed epically.
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Now, back to COVID.
As 2020 progressed, I found I had more and more time on my hands. Coincidentally, my wife had started downloading audio books with an app from the LA Public Library and was really enjoying it. So, like any good partner, she recommended I check it out.
Still chafing from my previous library experience, I resisted at first. But then as COVID dragged on I realized I had nothing to lose. So I downloaded the app, signed up for a digital card and began renting e-books on my kindle.
At first, it was a pretty foreign experience to me.
I spend most of my professional days on screens, so it wasn’t ideal reading after work hours on one either, but the more I got used to it, the less I began to mind.
And I quickly realized, like taking a gigantic bite into some new juicy fruit, it was pretty fucking cool. This shit tasted great!
I never had to endure a physical trip to the library and could rent up to 25 books at one time on my kindle. The books didn’t take up any space, and because I rarely re-read a book, I didn’t mind not having hard copies.
I had done a 180-degree turn around.
I had morphed from a hard copy book snob to an e-reading digital fucking drag queen nomad.
Is this for everyone? Fuck no.
But I like to admit when I’m wrong. The library actually can be one hell of a fucking life hack and cost savings advantage.
Maybe some of these FI fanatics knew what they were talking about… at least just a little.
Then, as a result of my new shift to e-reading, I was finally able to let go of all those bookshelves full of fantasy novels during the house move. It hurt at first going to a used bookstore and pawning them off, but they took up a ton of space and were never used. At least now maybe someone else will be able to read them and experience the same joy that I had.
Sure, my eyes are probably the real loser in this change of reading routine, but my wallets heavier, I have more space, and the convenience is par to none.
If you would have asked me a year ago if I’d ever give up reading hard copy books or downsize my own collection of novels and switch to e-books, I’d have said no fucking way.
But change is still possible.
It’s never too late.
Yet I still fucking hate that book Your Money or Your Life… haha!
We can only change so much…
-Q-FI
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Let’s hear it hardcore readers. Do you read e-books? Are you a hard copy only type reader? Ever think you can switch? Is the library a great life hack or just an illusion pitched by the FI community?
Hey Q-FI! That was a fun read, and a compelling way to sell the library idea without being quite so on the nose. 🙂
I wonder if you’d been more or less apt to accept the library visit advice during the pandemic had you not been bit by that waterlogged yellow tome previously?
Maybe $35 was a small price to pay.
Personally, I picked up a local library card a few years back and have made very little use. I’m still so far behind on reading that I haven’t made use of the ebook access in the way I’d intended (like you have). But, I’m sure, I’ll eventually manage. Ours also has a lot of events that might be interesting to early retirees (lots of educational and network type of events).
What’s up Chris and thanks for chiming in.
I’ll still stick by my stance the Library is not for everyone. And the cost savings probably don’t matter. When I was in my reading binging – blasting through long fantasy series, I could order a used book with barely any shipping cost way less than a new Amazon paperback if you were willing to wait more than 2 days. How much savings per book, a few dollars, so nothing to even blink at. Even with the quantity adding up, there are better places to cut costs.
Yeah, that’s a curious question to ponder. Maybe I would still be pro hard copies if I didn’t have the Lake incident. But COVID was the real kicker. I don’t think I would have ever gotten into e-books if it weren’t for that. The thing was, libraries were shut down, so you literally couldn’t check out real books, but everything online kept humming along. It was an interesting experiment to watch in real time. Sometimes technology does trump the old way of doing things.
Maybe you’ll use it some day, maybe not. The max check-out is 21 days for the LA library. So if you have a long book, or are not a fast reader you need to be on it. Then again, that really only matters if it is a popular book that has a wait list. I think the check out deadline has also led me to read faster, hahaha.
You’ll have to let me know if you ever do make use of that library card! Ha!
I was an anti-electronic reader for years and years. My vice is magazines; not so much books. Then I went the cheap (read “free”) electronic route at some point for a reason I can’t recall. Never went back. Have literally saved thousands of dollars. Love it.
That’s interesting with magazines FFTP. I never got into them that much. Can’t really pinpoint a reason why though. I did used to have a subscription to Money magazine, but I think it folded due to lack of demand for print subscriptions.
So do you still read the magazines now but on a tablet? Or have you switched more to books?
Very intriguing my man.
I read them on my phone. The Economist and the New Yorker mostly. So, the content plentiful and engaging. That’s probably a big part of the reason I can stand to read on a smallish screen. Also, they’re published regularly, so reading the electronic copy saves me from having to make lotsa trips to the library.
Books, I’ve not read on a device, but probably could. That said, I still like physical books and the library is close by. So, I’ll likely stick with the physical product.
Cool. Thanks for elaborating bud.
My luckiest move last year was signing up for a library card, then the Libby App to out books on hold. I’ve read over 200 e-books in the last year and a half, all free! Got me through this…
Put books on hold that was supposed to be…
You’ve won the contest for best commenting name ever! Haha. That shit cracked me up. Never had someone post that before. Well played MQFF.
I concur bud, that was pretty much the same as me – it was a great way to escape with all the chaos of the last year and a half. Plus, writing this blog has been a good creative outlet as well.
I used Libby and Overdrive. For some reason I’ve been using Overdrive more, but I think my wife uses Libby more. Couldn’t tell you why. But the cool part is you can put so many books on hold, you’re almost always getting one coming in when you need a new one. Yeah, the convenience and effectiveness of the e-reading apps has been pretty cool.
Two hundo is quite the number. Glad you you smashed it on the reading front and thanks for the comment!
Thanks MQFI, your name is the best too! I was camping and completely off the grid in rural Vermont almost in Canada last two weeks, with no cell signal and was still reading my latest two books on Libby on my Kindle. You are the best, my man, wishing you strength and bloglivity 🙂
That sounds like an awesome trip. The more I can be off the grid and disconnected, usually the better. I appreciate the kind words and well wishes. Bloglivity – that’s fucking classic.
I honestly expected your article to talk about all the options most libraries offer now that aren’t part of the original library definition:
Internet
hot-spots
metal detectors
online course access
consumer reports
genealogy research
cooking supplies
puzzles and board games
meeting room spaces
cricut machines
3-d printers
inter library loans
movies and video games
and more.
Glad to know you’ve found use for your local one!
Sorry Kelly, for some reason this comment found its way into my spam folder so just getting to it now…
Hahahaha… none of these even really crossed my mind Kelly. Look at how buried in the sand my head was, all I paid attention to was the e-loaning service. I don’t play video games, but I shouldn’t have overlooked that one. I think that’s super popular with peeps, and especially with COVID.
Are you a library whiz? I have some questions on this list…
Metal detector?
Circuit machines?
3-d printers?
They have these? That’s pretty wild.
Thanks for enlightening me and joining the conversation.
i can’t remember the last time i had a library card. i walk by our large city library every single day on the afternoon dog walk. but…i have a dog with me so no entry. we are fortunate to have a good friend who owns a used book store, rust belt books. she curates these books and knows what i like in general. i don’t even need to go in there. a couple of times a year mrs. smidlap goes in there and gets a bag of books for $5. some are duds but most are ok and i’m not too picky as to what i read. then we just give ’em back or donate them. i’m a paper book guy all the way still…and only for entertainment and not personal development or enrichment.
That’s cool supporting your local bookstore and reading used books. I’ve done that in the past as well.
Now I’m a digital sell-out… haha. I love the convenience of the e-book renting, but it’s probably the worst thing possible for the sustainability of a brick and mortar library. It will be interesting to see what happens to them over the next 5-10 years.
I’ve also cut down on business/non-fiction. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to read anything like that. Had a big phase of it a few years back. But since COVID it’s all been fiction for fun and creativity. Funny how we kind of go in phases with everything.
Thanks for sharing bud. I’ll put a tally in the hard copy reader column for you.
Good story. I’ve had a similar thing happen to me involving a library book, a car window not rolled up all the way, and a rainstorm. I’m also having my own library renaissance over here too, this time with the kiddos. For us going to the library is a fun event that the kids get super excited about. They act as if I’m buying them all these books and they love to load up each trip. It’s hella fun taking them, minus the interactions with the bums who frequent the place as you mention. But I’m reading more than ever with my library card and don’t feel guilty about picking something up and not finishing it, because its not like I directly paid for the book. I sort of dabble around till I find things I like. Reading things I might not have otherwise if I had to buy it. It’s great.
I’ve never given e-books a real shot, like reading an entire book, but I dislike reading on a kindle or any e reading device just from trying out my dads a few years ago. When I’m reading a real book I like to see the physical thing sitting there on my nightstand next to my bed. I like to see the progress or lack of progress, in pages chowed down. I’m open to trying it again one day, but I’ll have to be forced to make the move.
Yeah, I have a bookshelf filled with books I’ve only read once. I see my bookshelf almost like a wall full of photos, each book represents a different period of my life. One day I’ll have to dispose of my bookshelf. But I still love actual books, maybe not owning them, but reading them. I’ll be honest, I miss the newspaper too. I hate reading the news on my phone. Nothing like a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a fresh newspaper waiting to be opened. I used to bring the paper to work with me too, to read during lunch. I’m sure I’m romanticizing the past a little bit, but lack of choice suits me better, especially with reading content.
That’s pretty awesome with the kiddos. I hope to be doing exactly that as well some day.
Cool to hear you have been using your card, and that makes a lot of sense you’re more inclined to try a wider variety of books since you aren’t paying. Funny how money can make us a little more exclusive sometimes. I’ve always struggled to stop reading a book after I start, no matter how bad it is. There’s something inside of me that believes if I pick it up I need to finish it. It makes no sense, but I’ve gotten better at addressing it. I can do it with a TV show or movie no problem, but for some reason that sunk cost of time reading, affects me differently. Haha.
I relate to all your pros for reading a physical copy of a book. Those were my same tendencies as well.
The bookshelf wasn’t easy to let go. Particularly for the point you mention, it was like a visual database of all that I had read…. or photo as you better described. But, when push came to shove, I didn’t really need to hang on to them. Maybe if I had a larger house and there was room for them in some extra bedroom, then maybe I would have fought more. But the wife was against it, and honestly, I didn’t have a good excuse to keep them except for memories. And sometimes that can be enough in itself, but I decided to move on and see what happens. Haven’t regretted the decision yet. Maybe the day will come when I’m craving a certain book and wish I still had it, but now I can just check it out online as well.
It’s been cool to see what people’s tendencies toward reading are. I thought at first this would be a really boring post for a lot of people, but now I’m realizing everyone can relate to reading in some way and in what form they prefer to consume the written page.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Noel!
Commenter Note: This is going to be long.
First, you’re now writing about books which I’d like to attribute to the “Fates Influence” and just generally applaud. Oddly, yesterday, I was squaring up the contenders thus far for the 2021 FoF book awards.
For most of my life, I was just like you. A lover of books who could never transition from the fetish of holding and reading a real book. It’s a sublime experience and no one ever “curled up in front of the fire with a nice Kindle,” or at least not me.
It was only about 6 years ago at a my monthly misfit book-club meeting that i learned something that forevrer changed my life. Ready to have your mind blown?
People may say the best things about CA are the sunshine and beatuiful people. But they are wrong. The best thing about CA? Irrespective of where you live in the state, so long as you can prove you live there – ANY library ANYWHERE in CA must give you a library card. What does this really mean?
With CA book nerds, it’s called “library hacking”. First, the LA County library has the MOST volumes of any library system in the US (and top in the world). SF is close. So…I specifically traveled to LA, OC, SF, SD, SB and Sac counties to score library cards.
So when I was down there (and particularly up here with a shit library system), I can read pretty much anything published at any time. FOR FREE! From popular new releases to obscure self-published stuff, I can sit here in BFE, WA and read them all.
As a dude who reads over 200 books a year, my loose math is that the LA library alone had saved me over $15K since I had my card.
The only downside to all this? I have to read e-books. That forced my adaptation to digital quick-like Anyway, my challenge to you is? 1. Keep the LA card current and 2. If you’ve not done so, read “The Library Book” (about the history of the downtown library) and then spend a day visiting to take it all in.
Pure fucking magic!
Hahahaha… I love the commenter note. Write as long as you’d like.
I knew this would be up your alley because you read so much, but this is an even more impressive comment.
So my go to right now is the LA Public Library. I also have the LA County Library and a few others – for some reason I think I remember if you have the LA County card it gives you access to all the cities within LA County as well? I could be wrong on this. But I remember something like that with the library system sharing network. But between the LA Public Library and LA County I’ve found all the books I need. It’s interesting that you mention LA County is one of the largest libraries in the world, because so far I’ve found more of my books on the LA online library – could be that the LA library has a better online selection rather than hard copy, but either way, it’s one hell of a catalog as you mention.
So my sister actually worked at the LA library in the foundation department for many years. So I’ve been to it several times for events – actually randomly got to meet Craig from Craig’s List at one talk… hahaha. It’s pretty cool how it’s just nestled in there right across from the US Bank tower. Lots of bums, but still nice gardens around the outside. I have not though, read “The Library Book.” I’ll put that in my queue.
Great stuff MF and it’s sad to say that it took the luck of COVID for me to stumble upon this berth of knowledge and entertainment sitting at my fingertips all along. And I agree, the downside is you have to read e-books, but the convenience and accessibility so far has been well worth it.
We are huge users of the library. I prefer my books on paper so there is that.
But also we get audio books for the kids in the car. We get WiFi hot spots for our travels. We even borrow the occasional dvd. The library is not just for books;)
I glossed over the audio books and should have mentioned that. My wife is big on the audio books. So I think you have three main areas of consumption: hard copy books, e-books and audio books.
Yeah and good point like Kelly mentioned above, the library has a lot more to offer than just books.
Thanks for sharing FTF!