Picturing Pierre: Rawlins Public Library (#wwread)

The prompt this month for Where in the World Are You Reading, the new monthly meme created by Trish, Kelly and I is Library. This month's link ups over at The Written World.

When we first moved to Pierre I was very worried about my tiny little library. I'd gotten used to the large one in Rapid City, and was sure that this tiny place couldn't possibly keep up. Little did I know just how happy I'd be with the new library as well. The library is small, and quite outdated compared to Rapid City, but their book selection is terrific and they are completely willing to get Inter Library Loans for me. The staff is mostly friendly and helpful with only a few grumpy exceptions, and the staff on my preferred days (Wednesday and Sunday) are all terrific.

As you enter the building the first thing you see is the service desk. I managed to be there are the perfect time, so not only do you get to see the desk, you get to see my two favorite librarians- Jo Ann and Ken!  They greet me by name. There's a stack of tote bags there, in case you forget your own, as opposed to the plastic bags with logos at the old library. You return books to a little wooden bin, no self check in (or check out!) as at the Rapid City Library. Each book is checked out by a librarian and there's nothing automated about it.

If you turn to the left as you enter, you'll be in the children's section. I'll tell you here, I don't spend a ton of time in the children's section. I typically go to the library alone, as a treat to myself, but when I do take the kids, they absolutely love it.

There are a couple of computers loaded with kid games.

There are puzzles for them to play with.

The Caldecott and Newbery books are in their own section, along with books about Lewis and Clark.

The library doesn't have a huge section of new releases, and I often find that they are RE-releases, but they do seem to keep on top of the new titles. This is the fiction and mystery new release section.

Non-fiction new releases are on display in these end caps. The full shelves are the regular stacks.

I managed to not get any pictures of the middle of the room, but there are public computers and tables for studying and movies and magazines to check out in the middle. There are also kid's backpacks with a theme, as the Princess is demonstrating here.

This is the young adult books section at the library, which is pretty small but seems comprehensive to me.

Have you shared your library? We'll be doing a wrap up post on the last Thursday, so be sure to head over and link up your post before then!

Maureen Johnson, Pinterest, Dallas

• The Bug picked out Lincoln Logs with his birthday money. He's such a little builder.
• Do you see the wrinkles in my rug in that picture? Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop the rug from wrinkling? It's driving me insane. I've tried to weight it down with the furniture, but no dice.
• Maureen Johnson talks about photoshop and advertising. "Altering the image creates something truly and profoundly OTHER. It creates the unattainable, which means you have the endless carrot and stick."
• This is an absolutely wonderful post on Motherhood. Seriously. Especially if you've struggled in those first few months.
• I love Pinterest, I really do, but I'm starting to wonder just where all these crafters are getting all their pretty thrifted wool sweaters (my thrift store has a nice selection of pilly acrylic ones) and decent used furniture. At some point there's going to be more play kitchens made from bedside tables than there are bedside tables.
• On Tuesday I had coffee with a new friend. It was terrific. I can't wait to do it again.
• Trish and Andi are agitating for me to drive through Dallas on my way from Alabama to South Dakota later this summer. This is only possible if I find a place to spend the night in the middle of Kansas, or southern Nebraska. Suggestions?
• I did not get the perfect job. I was very confident that I would when I applied. I'm pretty bummed. However, I'm now suspending the search for the perfect part time job until after the summer.

What I Read This Week (and other Bookish Thoughts):

• Speaking of Andi, she's persuaded me to pick Outlander back up.  I haven't yet, but any day now.
• My library copy of Insurgent came in, and I hope to start it today.
• My library still doesn't even have The Last Boyfriend: Book Two of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy in the system and it's making me crazy. I keep walking past it in the store and hovering over the link on Amazon.
• I read Midnight Bayouby Nora Roberts in two long sittings this week. It was good, but the ending was very rushed and left me unsatisfied. You can find more thoughts on it here.
• Last night I finised up First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh. I'm pretty sure I've read another Balogh, but I couldn't tell you what. This one was quite good. If I had a complaint it would be that the heroine is a tad too philosophically introspective. I might write more on it later.
• I'm also lugging around The Digital Mom Handbook: How to Blog, Vlog, Tweet, and Facebook Your Way to a Dream Career at Home, because it can't hurt to read it, right?

Rugs, Librarians, and Necromancers.

• Why do people put rugs under dining room tables? Do you have one under yours? Why?
• We had a major catastropy this week when the Bug left his Snuggly Bear Blankie at the thrift store. No, I don't know why he took it in. THANK GOODNESS, we had two of them. And, even better, when I called in the morning it was there! We have been reunited. (And it feeeeels so good.)
• The Princess had her 18 month check up yesterday. She weighs in at a whopping 21.1 lbs (29th percentile) and 31" tall (41st percentile.) She is otherwise a healthy girl. She got 4 shots (her last ones for a few years!) and  took it like a total rock star. Unfortunately, she followed it up with a low grade fever and a messed up nap.  I did talk to the pediatrician about the sleep issues, but she kinda agrees that it's a by product of the apartment and the fact that she KNOWS we are 10 feet away. 

What I Read This Week:

• 
  Tempt Me at Twilight (Hathaways, Book 3) by Lisa Kleypas. About half done. No idea how Kleypas is going to make me like Harry, but I trust that she will.
• 
  Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life by Lauren E Winner. This is a reread, about 2/3 done.
• 
  Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride. Barely started.
• 
  Obsidian Butterfly (An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 9) by Laurel K Hamilton. This is also a reread. A friend has convinced me to give the rest of the series another shot and this is the last one that I even barely remember, so I'm starting here.

Three things to love about Pierre, South Dakota

1. This morning the Bug, the Princess and I went to the thrift store. Tuesday is the day all the new stuff appears, so it's a fairly crowded day in a very small building. Add a loud 3 year old and a stroller and you can imagine how much they love me, but we still go every week.  Today I had given the Bug his very own five dollar bill with which to buy his toy. Predictibly, he lost it. I mentioned it at the check out and she took my name and number, but really, it was $5 and I expected it to be gone.   I got a call, less than an hour later, that someone turned it in. Yes, this could happen anywhere, but it seems like such a small town thing to me.

2. When we first moved here I worried about the tiny library. One of my first posts was about the library and how  less technologically advanced it was than my old one. As time has gone on, I've come to love the little library. I can get most of the books I want off their shelves, and if they don't have it there is always Inter Library Loan. They forgive all fees if you return books on Wednesday and Sunday, there's no limit to the number of books you can check out, and all books are 30 day loans. With only one or two exceptions, the librarians are all very friendly.  But here's why I really love it- on Sunday, Mike dropped me off at the front door so I could run in some returns and pick up my holds. I get a LOT of holds. I was standing at the desk putting my returns in the bin, when one of my favorite librarians looked up and saw me. She said, "Oh! I have something for you!" and propped against the phone, right there on the front desk, was a little note attached to a card that they had found in one of my returns. The amazing part is not that they would return it to me (though really, it was an unremarkable Christmas card), but that I hadn't told them my name. They didn't KNOW I'd be in on Sunday unless they'd noticed I'm there every Sunday.  It wasn't with my holds that I hadn't even asked for yet.  When we go to story time, which is not as often as you'd think, the children's librarian remembers ALL the kids names, including mine. This personal touch is exactly what I want in a library.

3. We recently had some work done on our car.  We only own one car, our other vehicle being a company truck. We are allowed to ride in the company truck, but it only seats four. So we had no car that the entire family could fit into. The day that it was returned to us was a particularly busy one for Mike and he was having a hard time getting away from work, let alone finding someone to take him to pick it up. When I was talking to the woman on the phone, she offered to bring it to me. "Oh, I'm headed that way anyway, I'll just have my partner follow me. No big deal!" No extra charge. My car showed up at my door within the hour.

Library Loot and Reading Plan

I recently moved the furniture around in our living room so that I could make a little play area for the kids to use during the day. I thought it would make the toys in the living room look intentional, as opposed to messy (and it does!) but one of the by products of this was that I relocated the shelves where we keep our library books. Instead of being along the same wall as my "desk" (the spot at the table where I always sit, next to my sewing machine), they are now directly across the room from me, in my line of sight. Suddenly, I can't stop seeing all the books that I have checked out and need to read before I can't renew them any more.  At my current rate of less than a book a week, there's no way I'll be able to read them all. In order to make it seem a bit more managable, I returned every book that wasn't on the shelf for a reason. That is, I returned all the impulse grabs. This leaves me with the following list, in no particular order, which is still completely impossible!

• Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, half done with this one, as mentioned previously.
• Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. For my personal reading challenge
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Because everyone and their dog loved it and put it on their list.
• Falling for Hamletby Michelle Ray. For the Janssen Reading Challenge. This one is ILL, I can't renew it. Need to brush up on my Hamlet first though.
• Splitby Swati Avasthi. Also for the Janssen Reading Challenge. Also via ILL.
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan. Again with the everyone and their dog, plus it seems like a good followup to The Kitchen Counter Cooking School.
• This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. Recommended by several blogs, and my good friend Shawna.
• The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter. Recommended by Amanda. Sadly this one will have to go back because I'm not going to get to it before it's due tomorrow, and no more renewals. I'll bring it home again one day.
• Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski. I have no idea who recommended this one, but someone did!
• A Profound Mind: Cultivating Wisdom in Everyday Life by the Dalai Lama. Ok, no one recommended this one, it was on the new release shelf. I remain fascinated by religion, khama, happiness, and the intersection of such. At 148 pages and two renewals remaining, I think I'll get to it.
• Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch. This is another that made the rounds. I saw it in the Large Print section and snapped it up.
• Shine by Lauren Myracle. Because unless you spent last fall under a rock, you heard about this one and the controversy.
• Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride. Bookshelves of Doom gets the credit for it. ("Speaking of, the love story is adorable.")
• The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir (P.S.) by Josh Kilmer-Purcell. Ok, no rec for this either, I guess.
• The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. This one isn't a library book, it's my next book for the BlogHer Book Club. I was thrilled to get in on this one since I've heard so many great things.

And to round it all out, yesterday I got a call that I have two more books waiting at the library- Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods and The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters (that second one is an ILL, so again, no renewing on it!)

If I'm realistic at all, I'll start with the ILLs, then the BlogHer book (due Feb 8, I think.) Where would you start?

(The top shelf of books are the ones on this list, the second shelf are all for Mike. The third shelf are kid's library books, and the bottom shelf are random books we own that needed a place to go when I was cleaning the living room. The canvas bag is full of library returns.)