A love letter to our library bus

I’m hosting this month’s IndieWeb Carnival and I invited everyone with a blog to write a love letter to something or someone they care about. In the turbulent times where the Internet is being bombarded by hate speech and negative news, I want to sparkle more kindness and positivity to combat that. There's still time to write until the end of month and I'd love to read yours!

Ever since I learned to read (or probably even before that), I’ve been a library geek. We went to our local library regularly and I’d always carry a big pile of books home to read and plunge into adventure after adventure. As a kid, I’d read multiple books a week and especially loved larger than life epic fantasy or scifi adventures.

As I’ve grown up and life has become busier with work, my reading habits have taken a dip worse the worse but I still try to enjoy reading whenever I can.

I love our library bus

Every Friday afternoon, a library bus comes visit our neighbourhood. It’s not an absolute necessity to me as the main library is a short bus ride away but I visit it every other Friday.

I love a library bus as a concept. A bus full of books, DVDs and CDs comes to my neighbourhood and I can pick up anything I want for free. The regular pace of two weeks between visits gives me a good boundary that leads to me reading more. The limited collection makes it easier to give into the randomness to discover new things.

Its schedule is perfect. Friday afternoon makes it a great break off point from the work week and start of a weekend. I finish whatever I’ve been working on, close my work laptop and shut down my work phone. I pick up my previously borrowed books and DVDs and head out. During warm enough months, I usually head out there 10 minutes before to just sit and enjoy the nature and mentally unwind from the week.

I see the bus turn from the main road to our area and settle in to its slot. There’s usually a small crowd waiting — I’m not the only one in the neighbourhood who loves the bus — and we squeeze into the bus to return our items and to browse through the shelves for new adventures to delight us.

The bus’s interior isn’t big but it packs a lot of books inside. You need to be conscious of other people in the space as there’s not too much extra space to move around. It’s a great place to meet people who live in the neighbourhood. From young kids to the elderly, the bus is a third place that comes to visit you rather than the other way around.

I often find myself day dreaming of the perfect library bus. One that in addition to being a place to borrow books from would have some sort of social space to hang out. In my head, I imagine a modified bus that, when parked, expands into a small terrace with chairs and tables to sit down and read and chat with others. Something that wouldn’t visit for just 30 minutes but maybe a few hours or half a day. A place that would be a great mobile gathering spot in a less busy life.

It might not be realistic right now but just like a lighthouse, it’s something I can experience in my mind when I need an escape from the capitalist hustle culture.