Groovy Books and Stuff

Libraries. They're great places, aren't they? Zillions of beautiful books all available for FREE. Book-lovers salivate whenever they pass one. REAL book-lovers seldom pass one without going in and maxing out their library card. Homeschoolers love them.

Wait, no. That's not necessarily true. Homeschool curriculum companies love libraries - at least they say they do. Both FiaR and LLATL come with recommended reading lists and activities that accompany the chosen tome. This means the homeschool family must have access to the selected literature or the curriculum is pretty much a bust.

No problem, they say. All these books are "classic literature". You can just swoop them up for free at your local library.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh My...snort! That's just too funny! "They" obviously don't live in Po-dunk, USA. If they did, they'd know that small town libraries do not have a vast array of "classics", especially older ones. They're much more likely to carry a few young adult or adult classics and then a whole lotta popular "stuff".

Still no problem, right? Just use the infamous inter-library loan system. Now this really does sound like a good idea. All the libraries in a given area pool their resources. Surely, if my library doesn't stock this awesome book, one of the others nearby does.

Maybe. Maybe not.

If you live in MY town, you may have to wait over a month for your requested title. Then you actually have to pay the shipping fees for each book. The library racked up quite a few bucks off of me when we were using FiaR!

Sometimes it's just better to own them for yourself. After all, if they're really that good (and most of them are - watch for my upcoming reviews), your kids are going to want to read them over and over and over.

And just think, when you are finally finished with them, you can pass them on to your grand kids!