Like Duck to Water, thats how I have taken to life :). This blog is the saga of love and adventures of a small duck in a large water body called LIFE....

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Sunday, January 29, 2006

So what's booking?


So whats cooking? Books, books and more books :-D. In the past one and a half months, I guess I have read more than 20 books!! Have I found some kind of a treasure? Yup, of sorts :).

I've always been fond of good books. Reading has been one of my all-time hobbies. I can finish some motu motu novels in hours if I put my mind on it :-D. So since I came to US and heard there are public libraries here in Lexington, wanted to become a member and see what books I can find. But all the 5 branches of the lexington public library were somewhat far away to our previous apartment, hence never made it to them then ;-). As soon as we shifted to our now home, we found that there was one branch very near to our current home. So, finally the day of becoming a library member had arrived :).

It was a lovely surprise when actually went on to become a member. All it takes is a photo id and proof of residence. No money!! Not even a single paisa or should I say cent ;-) :-D. I still don't have a photo id except for my passport and so Sri became a member showing his driving license. I had thought we'll go the next day again and I'll become a member. But it sorta became irrelevant when we found that you could borrow, not 2, not 10, but 35 books at a time!! What the heck were we going to do with 70? :-D.

At first, I was disappointed with the library near my place. It was a bit smaller than what I had imagined to be and there didn't seem to be many books around. But soon the disappointment changed into another pleasant surprise, when we found out you could borrow books from any branch and return anywhere!! Better is the online system. You can search for the books you want and place a hold to collect them in some particular branch of library. If they are available in some other branch, they are actually transported to the one where you want to collect!! You just go to the library and collect them from the counter where they have it waiting for 7 days :). The online site is here, if you want to take a look. You can place holds, check the due dates of the books with you, renew once, all online :).

This scheme of things is not only in Lexington, but in every city in US. So how do they maintain all this, if they aren't taking any money for membership? The money is being looted out of us in another way, but I don't have any complaints since its being put to good use. The income tax here in US is divided into something called Federal tax, State tax and County tax. The Federal tax percentage is comparitively less when compared to the State and County taxes. The county tax is used in laying roads and basically cleaning up that particular county. And it is used for that purpose!! Thats why the roads are what they are here in US. I believe the state taxes go into maintaining these public libraries.

I remember we have some public libraries in India too. The insides of most of them look like a haunted castle, with dust and cobwebs. No cleaning up, no maintenance plus ollllld ollllllld books. No latest books except for some magazines and newspapers. After all you can't keep ancient newspapers, warna they'd probably have had them and no new ones :-p. Here you can get the latest books, DVD and video casettes for borrowal. Of course there is a fee if you forget the due date. If you are within due date, then no fee, nothing. Just shows how things go if taxpayers' money is put into good use, which sadly is lacking in India. Not that there isn't any corruption here, but atleast some part of the money actually is going into good purposes!!

So far, I have ready many collections of Calvin n Hobbes and Garfield in comics and read lots of novels I've been wanting to read for sometime now - Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons", John Grisham's latest "The Broker", Frederick Forsyth's "Avenger", "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Odessa File". Already on hold are Frederick Forsyth's "No Comebacks", Dan Brown's "The Deception point" and "Digital Fortress". Should be finishing them by next week :-D. Frederick Forsyth is my all time favourite author and the best part is, all of his books, I repeat, ALL OF HIS BOOKS, are available in the library. So plan to read a couple of them again :-D. Haven't borrowed any DVD's till now, 'cause my mind's on books right now.

While I have been hogging on my favourite fiction novels, Sri's been reading up on non-fiction and we both are enjoying the library assets in our own ways :). He also made me read Stephen Hawking's non fiction "A Brief History of Time" and yeah, it felt like I was reading a physics text book after oh-so-long :). He also has "Interpretations of Dreams" by Sigmund Freud on hold for me. I have loads and loads to read and yup, I'm lovin' it :-D. And so my love affair with books continues.......... :) :).

7 Comments:


Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr retorted...

Grrrrrrrrrrr.....
I;m so feeling bad of myself right now as I read ur post that I'm able to finish one damn novel for past so many days...and look at you...you finished like 20 books :O

*claps*

All it takes is a photo id and proof of residence.
There you go...you are getting luckier and more luckier in every new paragraph....hehehe

Haven't borrowed any DVD's till now, 'cause my mind's on books right now.
Is it okie...if I say I HATE YOU, in a nice way :(((

And so my love affair with books continues..........
I so envy you right now Dip-tea...Grrrrrr..

:)))
Have fun and take care!!


Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr retorted...

Hmmm...think I won the gold and silver both :)


Thanu retorted...

So that is y the ur posts have become less frequent. Enjoy the books..used to be a huge reader, now have lost the drive... need to pick it up soon.

Try author Mary Higgins Clark, she has some great murder mystrey fictions. Try Jeffery Archer too.


Anil.kumar03@gmail.com retorted...

deeps :

yes indeed, its so amazing to visit such lovely libraries, and gets so many books issued that too without shelling out a single penny.

When I saw the library, it just fell in love with it. It has a beautiful park in the same campus, so I would spend saturdays, first reading newspaper , issuing a few books and then read in sun , some novels.

thanks to internet, I have reduced my heabit of reading drastically. Can you believe that I have been reading "Life of Pi" for last 23 days.

Maybe your post will give me a kick to reignite my passions for books , again.

-ATG


Deeps retorted...

>> Arjun >>

Hehehehe. Girl power :-D. BTW there are very less number of comments on my posts, so your winning the gold is not a big deal, whereas me winning a gold on your blog is :-D.

>> Thanu >>

:( I've been posting once a week. I've become too lazy and much busy with work to post more frequently :(.

>> Anil >>

Hmm I'm into internet too and I hope this book reading is just not an initial enthu and hope it doesn't fade away with time...


Dipayan (DeepDiveR) retorted...

How waz angels and demons? have been tryin to get hold of it for months but i still cant. fell in love with dan brown's works after da vinci code et al...hez amazing. And Mary Higgins Clark is also a very good reco u got from thanu


Soumya retorted...

Hey,

I got side tracked by the anniversary post and didn't comment on ur books post...Unpardonable!! Considering, books are my best friends...Hadn't read that many when I was in India(apart from the innumerable famous fives, nancy drews, hardy boys) but now, I can't just live without my books...

20 books in a month and a half...That's wonderful!!Great that u found a library nearby ur place...Isn't it great to have free membership and take as many books as u want?? I don't go very often to the public library but my university library has a good collection of novels too...Mostly I buy books in the sales that the library(ies) offer...Check it out in ur library too...They sell used books at throw-away prices...I've enmassed a huge collection likewise...

Now, I know ure a great fan of Frederick Forsyth; in fact u were the one who introduced me to him...Check out "The Fourth Protocol" by him...I became a fan of Dan Brown after "Da Vinci Code"...I read "Deception Point" & "Digital Fortress" in the last two weeks...You must read "The Client" by John Grisham...Its my favourite of all of Grisham's books...

I guess the comment is getting too long and I want to suggest so many more books to u...Just tell me which of the following authors u have read(or not read) and I'll email u a list of books...Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Ken Follet, Irving Wallace, Michael Crichton, Arthur Hailey...Not to forget Sherlock Holmes(the super sleuth) and Agatha Christie...My favourites in detective fiction...You should also check out Perry Mason(by Erle Stanley Gardner) for courtroom drama...

By the way, if Sriram is interested in non-fiction, he(and u) should read "On the wings of eagles" by Ken Follet...Its very good, based on a true story...Also, "The Diary of Anne Frank" is a phenomenol book...

Well, that's one loooooong comment...Don't mind my over excitement yaar...Can't stop myself when it comes to books...Surely mail me, I'll send u a long list...Do u like English classics?? Jane Austen et al?? Ok, ok..I'm stopping now...

Enjoy reading...Take care...