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Libraries are weirdly controversial places for book people

Remember that time on Once Upon a Time when Regina (Evil Queen) showed up to a party and everyone else was all "The fuck?" but Emma Swan made this face?:


Yeah, so Swan Queen is canon. Done.

I think I tend to assume other people have the same relationship with the library that I do. Or at least other book-liking people. Turns out, NOT necessarily the case.


Chicago has a kickass, eight floor, whole-city-block-inhabiting downtown library called the Harold Washington Library Center. It has escalators. It has many many reading corners. It has a convenient popular library on the first floor for the lazy among us who either want the latest Jodi Picoult or free DVDs because Netflix Instant somehow just isn't enough. I love this library.

The main things that seem to keep people away from their respective library branches are: 

 1) Germs are gross. DO YOU KNOW WHAT PEOPLE DO WITH THOSE BOOKS. I don't. But I do know I once dropped a library book in a (clean) toilet. So think on that. 

 2) I didn't return a book this once and now I'm worried the librarian's gonna come after me with a pickaxe. Librarians do not do this. They are busy folk for the most part, or bored circ workers who don't care. Speaking as a former bored circ worker, the only way they'll give you shit is if you act like an entitled asshole. Otherwise they'll help you clear your record. 

 3) I just like owning the books I'm reading. Perfectly acceptable reason. I find no fault in this. Unless you have a lot of credit card debt, in which case omg just go to the library. 

 4) I work at the Parks Department. Well then.


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