My summers have always been irrevocably linked with Willy Shakes but while writing my previous post I realized that my childhood summers are tied to other nerdy things: like libraries.
Summer meant no bed time, or at least a greatly belated one. When we were finally ordered to our rooms I could stay up as long as I wanted, without my mother's threats. You see, my years in school never taught me how to spread out my reading. If I can not read a book in 2-3 sittings, it will never be read no matter how well-written or enthralling I find the novel (i.e. East of Eden). During the school year, my parent's would threaten me with the wrath of God to turn out my nightlight and put my Nancy Drew books away. Unless I wanted the ten plagues unleashed upon the Earth, I could only read on the weekends. But not in the summer.
Library check out limits were the bane of my 12 year old existence. I am a fast reader. I always have been. Since my mom only had the energy to drag the four of us to the library once a week, I chose my books based on their page number. I read Swiss Family Robinson the summer after fifth grade only because it was the thickest book in the Young Adult library section.
I'll gladly acknowledge that I read the YA fiction much longer than I should have. (I've been to 4 Harry Potter midnight releases for goodness sakes.) The adult fiction section of the Abilene library was daunting compared to my 3 rows of YA in the basement. At 14, when my weekly rate of consumption exceeded my check out limit, I knew it was time to move on.
Of all the formative memories we keep of those crystallized moments in which we feel our reluctance to leave our childhood are tangible, leaving those 3 rows of Young Adult fiction in the basement is my most salient acknowledgment of "growing up."
I'm offically an adult now, perusing the 800's in the Dallas Public Library.
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