Adventurous Things To Do at the Library

Learn how to play with books

Photo by Fran on Unsplash

My personal history with libraries

I’ve had a love affair with local libraries since I was a child. It started in the 1970s when my mom would drop us off at the library for the day in the summer. I adored the smell of old books and felt so grown-up using the card catalog to find books.

On library day in elementary school, I would eagerly scour the stacks for a Mrs. Piggle Wiggle book, and the latest witch stories by Ruth Chew. (My love of Witcherature goes way back.)

In high school, I spent many hours in the library researching papers and studying. (It’s what we did before the internet and Wikipedia, kids.)

In college, I had a particular study carrel that I loved to spend long days in, snacks surrounding me, and piles of reading to be done if I hoped to get a Comparative Literature degree.

Once I had a child, I took her to the library every single week. It was one of our favorite things to do together.

Now I am an empty nester, and I still go to the library weekly. I meet my writing group there, find new books for the week, and write amongst the stacks. I always come home feeling calmer after a morning at the library.

It can be tempting, when you are a ‘grown-up’, to stop playing, the opportunities just aren’t there, but lately, I’ve been making an extra effort to bring more adventure and play into my life and the library was one of the first places I brought it back. Here are some ways you can bring a sense of wonder and fun to going to the library.

Get Writing Inspiration

I recently read this Substack about using Bibliomancy for writing inspiration and decided to try it out with my writing partners. We had so much fun running around the library (okay, not running because you shouldn’t run in the library) and randomly picking books, looking for quotes. At the end of the exercise, we were all surprised by the results and had a whole lot of fun doing it.

Try Something New

Go to a section of the library that you don’t usually frequent, pick a book randomly and then take it home and read it. It’s like a blind date with a book and, just like a blind date, it can go badly or end up being the start of a love affair. You won’t know until you try.

Become the Most Interesting Woman (or Man) in the World

Remember when you were little, and you would get obsessed by a topic like dinosaurs or Florence Nightingale and you would read every book you could find about it? Well, you can still do that now. Maybe you want to learn more about sourdough bread or become an expert on Vikings-pick a topic and get a bunch of books from the library about it. Create a syllabus and make yourself your own class, like Roni Lauren did. Now you have tons of interesting things to talk about at your next cocktail party.

Get Crafty

Use your library’s collection to inspire you to craft and make art. Jessica Pigza, a rare book librarian, put out a book, Bibliocraft, to teach you how. Or watch the Youtube series, Design by the Book and get inspired by how the artists use the New York Public Library’s collection as inspiration for their works.

There are likely a million more ways you can be inspired to play by your library. I’d love to hear how you play at the library.

So this is where I remind you that I would love for you to become a paid subscriber to The Cozy Library. You’ll get access to my original fiction, and special treats for writers, like my Write-o-Matic tool that will help you find new ways to create a sustainable writing practice.