Not so much reinventing the wheel, more like rediscovering a very low-key form of fire.

After living in Chicago for nearly ten years I just got a library card fairly recently, which is weird because I've always really loved public libraries. I feel really au courant, in the know, etc. for having a library card, which is clearly completely misunderstanding the entire point of the library. I can't really remember what spurred me to finally get a card, maybe that I wanted to read the Plot Against America by Philip Roth and the thought of spending $20+ to buy another brand-new fresh book from a bookstore or Amazon (the receipt, the packaging, ugh) and then having to own it just felt really oppressive and sad. Now library books are nipping at my heels all the time and I feel a little bit oppressed by the stack of them that's always sitting around, demanding (unlike books that I've bought) to be read in a timely manner so I can return them so some other (possibly more worthy) reader can get them.

I've been trying to remember what books I've taken out of the library since I started, but it's kind of hard to reconstruct and the "myCPL" section of the Chicago Public Library website doesn't -- unlike netflix -- have a list of everything you've ever borrowed (presumably the civil libertarian librarians are protecting me from the Patriot Act, damn them). I know among the first batch of books I ever took out was indeed the Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I had it when we were on vacation with friends a couple months ago. Trying to pick sand out from between the library-issue clear plastic cover and the actual jacket, I wondered whether it's in bad form to bring a library book to the beach. My friend, who likely has not been to a public library since elementary school, suggested the library was probably thrilled that someone had actually checked a book out and would be downright ecstatic that the person then returned the book with signs of genuine use. I'm not sure the library feels that way, and based on how long I've been waiting for I Was Told There'd Be Cake and All the Sad Young Literary Men, it seems that they really don't need my business. I guess going on about the library is sort of like exclaiming, "Apples -- they're delicious!" But the thing is, apples are delicious and the library is awesome.

Here's what I can remember reading from the library so far:
The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill
Perfumes: The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez
Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
There are other books I've forgotten, I'm sure.

There have also been a few baby gear and baby care books (e.g., Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp), but my intention is to write a bit about each book and I just can't -- at this point anyway -- imagine writing about a baby-oriented book.

As my friend Heather says, more later and soon.