Why I Love Libraries

Last week my friend Susan told me about the Arlington Central Library: great selection of books, DVDS, and magazines, with a small bookstore on site where you can purchase old magazines and such for really cheap. I was excited because the DC libraries are not as extensive. So, Bobby and I went last Saturday and I went to town. It was so fun - I bought a bunch of old cooking magazines, rented some fun cookbooks and a good pregnancy yoga DVD. I picked up a flyer for a book sale they are having this weekend.

Bobby took the morning off as he was traveling a lot this week, and we headed out to the library for the sale. We bought $65 dollars worth of books. I checked when we got home, and the full retail cost of what we purchased was $395. SCORE. We bought 26 books:

Bobby's purchases:
The Death of Adam by Marilynne Robinson
When Character Was King by Peggy Noonan
Conscientious Objections by Neil Postman
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek
Mark by Larry W. Hurtado
Metaphysical Beliefs by Alasdair Macintyre
If there's a God, why are there atheists? R.C. Sproul
A Hunger for God by John Piper
Creed or Chaos by Dorothy L. Sayers
Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
The Spirit, the Church, and the World by John Stott
The Resurrection Narratives by Grant R. Osborne
America at the Crossroads by Francis Fukuyama
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
The Great Upheaval by Jay Winik
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

Kristin's Purchases:
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Over the River and Through the Wood by Lydia Maria Child
Husband Coached Childbirth: The Bradley Method by Robert A. Bradley, MD
Animal Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Cry, Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Little House on the Prairie: Collector's Edition by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Baby Book by William and Martha Sears (2x - got one for me and one for a friend)
Ginger by Charlotte Voake

Both tend towards our current interests: Bobby's trying to read a lot more history and social theory and I've been stocking up on birth/baby books and children's lit (as well as some social anthro/good fiction/food writing).

If given more time (and if we had more money...and bookshelves) we could have purchased a ton more. Hence, we're going to be strategic for the future! We love books and have a budget line for them, and we've decided that books we would like to own but don't immediately need will go on a list for this twice-yearly book sale. I am already excited for the spring!