Library Haul

 

This is what happens when I go to the library to return books, but don't have any holds to pick up. Because I can't leave empty-handed!

I love libraries, but mostly I place holds for books and go pick them up when a stack is ready. That's because I often need books for my writing projects and don't want to drive all over the city to find what I need. (We have 18 branches of the library here in Memphis!) Plus, I know and love the librarians at my local branch and like to give them the stats they need to stay open and serve the neighborhood. But that means that I often don't browse...

I compare it to doing a grocery pickup. (Except I hate grocery shopping almost more than anything else and I love libraries completely.) But I'd rather someone else do the work while I get to reap the benefits. Food for my body, food for my brain... very similar. And clearly after seeing what happens when I brose at the library and accumulate a stack like this... again, I'm reminded of how many random things jump into my cart at the grocery store.

The biggest difference? These books are FREE! Take that, groceries! Libraries win yet again.

Have you read any of the books in this stack? Based on these titles, is there anything you'd recommend me to read next?

Magic Can’t Save Us: 18 Tales of Likely Failure by Josh Denslow

Magic Can’t Save Us: 18 Tales of Likely Failure by Josh Denslow

I reviewed Josh Denslow's latest collection for MicroLit Almanac - read it here!

In Magic Can’t Save Us: 18 Tales of Likely Failure, Josh Denslow delivers a sharp, genre-blurring short story collection that’s equal parts funny, heartbreaking, and weirdly tender. Through eighteen inventive tales, Denslow injects magical realism into the messy, intimate spaces of human relationships. He uses dragons, harpies, and zombie apocalypses not as escapes from emotional conflict, but as magnifying glasses that reveal what’s already broken or breaking.