I read for at least one solid hour every day at lunch, and I’ve managed to get through all the new books I had with me already. I brought Cold Mountain with me today, because I had it and I hadn’t read it and everybody read it a few years ago, so why not. Twenty pages in, I was like “forget it.”

So tonight I went out and got my card. Finally, after twenty-two years, I have unfettered access to a metropolitan library system! This is glorious. I checked out nine hardcovers today (Flannery O’Connor, Terry Pratchett, lots of Margaret Atwood) and requested probably a dozen more, then biked back happy in the rain, my backpack taut and heavy with words.