An homage to libraries (and e-books)

We are a family of bookworms, and Ecuador is sadly bereft of libraries, bookstores, and books in general. In fact, there is not a single bookstore in La Maná. Many stores that call themselves bookstores (librerías) sell only paper, notebooks, and writing utensils. Even Cuenca, a modern, and well-developed city with a few decent bookstores, has no public library. In our early days in Quito, we did stumble upon a small building in the center of Parque Carolina, and we were so excited to discover that it was a city library. Unfortunately, as beautiful as the physical space was, it contained only a small supply of low quality books.

Ecuador's lack of books had always been troubling to me -- as a Peace Corps volunteer, I ran a free kids lending library in town -- but never so much as when we were planning our year abroad. What would we do? Paul and Dillon are both voracious readers; both can easily put a book away in an evening. I love reading, and while motherhood and doctoring have often distracted me from this treasured past-time, it was one of my goals to read consistently this year. Jonah and Brynna love being read to, and recently, Jonah launched into independent reading. He is getting pretty speedy!

And so . . .

Q: What does a book-loving family of five do for a year without books?

A: Library e-books!

The Library

I cannot count the number of times in the last few months that I have been profoundly grateful for the library, specifically for the Sonoma County and Phoenix Public Libraries. This is my homage to both.

Libraries are my absolute favorite community resource. They are open to everyone. They are free. They are FILLED with more books than any one person can read in a lifetime. They are often in the center of a city. They are warm. They are safe. They frequently serve meals, offer literacy resources, free cultural programs, and more. They ask nothing of you, other than that you consume the books. In fact, one of our children's librarians said to me years ago, "We actually like to see an occasional ripped children's book. It means kids are really using them, and we are funded to replace them."

Yes, we own plenty of books, but this doesn't prevent us from using our local public library like the book addicts we are.

When home in Santa Rosa, the kids and I typically visit our downtown branch weekly. We spend a good chunk of our time caressing books as we amble around the familiar space, reading a few we've read before, poring over some to decide whether or not to bring them home, and then checking out our max of 50 books, which we lug home and spend the week indulging in before we bring the week's loot back start the cycle again. We know the children's librarian by first name, and I find it excellent "talking to adults" practice to have the kids interact with her, asking to place requests, asking for help looking for a particular title, etc. With the kids in a dual immersion program, we have also appreciated the growing Spanish-language section in our local library.

It's different now, of course, that we are so far away. We can only access the digital side of things. We cannot ride our bikes there. There is no librarian to interact with. No story hour. No books to fondle. No displays to gawk at or pages to turn. And yet, and yet, using our SoCo Public Library cards plus my mother-in-law's Phoenix Public Library card (and our intermittent internet) we have been able to access a wide range of awesome books all the way from the Southern Hemisphere-- from graphic novels to regular old children's books, books in Spanish and books in English. Fiction, sci-fi, schoolbooks, and pleasure books. Occasionally, we have to wait for our turn in a virtual queue (that's no different, really than finding a book we want at the library not available because someone has already checked it out). On the bright side, some days, we can actually go to the library multiple times in a single day -- on the phone, that is.

We had a steep learning curve, but we have mostly mastered the Libby app (definitely my favorite for checking both libraries quickly and efficiently for books and availability) and are doing a fair job of managing our requests, holds and renewals. We have also had to master the "off-line mode" of most applications because we don't have regular internet access (its own blessing in disguise). Hoopla, the other library app, is a bit annoying because of limitations on the number of items we can have at once, but it has been helpful at times, particularly with some of Dillon's schoolwork, when books are not available on kindle.

It is absolutely amazing that so many books are available to us, for free, simply for being members of a society. And the fact that the library is able to expand digitally far beyond its four walls -- all the way to a village south of the Equator -- is a true blessing. It is making this year possible. I wish the same were true for my friends here in Ecuador!

E-books

It's not that we didn't bring any real books to Ecuador. We did. In fact, we lugged 50 pounds of Spanish language books -- for my kids and the children of La Josefina to enjoy. We even have a nice wooden bookcase that a local carpenter custom made for us. But, realistically, there was no way in the world we were going to be able to bring enough English language books to last us more than a week. And so, as part of our travel preparations, we purchased two new Kindles and were gifted a third (a Kindle Fire with a color screen) by my friend, Cherie. The Kindle Fire has been clutch for the graphic novel readers in the family.

Our Kindles are affectionately named Birdie (a kids version with a cute rainbow bird cover), Azul (she's mine, a svelte blue Paperwhite), Smokey McFirepants (our Fire, named by Paul), and Paul/Daddy's Kindle (I know, the most creative name of all, but he was the first).

Paul was an early adopter of e-books; he has used a Kindle and his cell phone to read books for years, but the rest of us have been sticklers for real books. If I am perfectly honest, I think my aversion to tablets bled over into e-books. I don't like electronic things, and I don't like my own face or my children's faces in screens. I happen to love the feeling of turning a page, physically turning a corner down to mark my spot, flipping back to the front cover, or glancing at the back to the bit about the author. I love the craftsmanship of book binding. And I, like Brynna and Dillon and Paul, simply love the smell of a book. In sum, the purchase of the Kindles and our familial conversion to an electronic book format was not voluntary.

But old dogs can learn new tricks! For the last nine months, thanks in large part to the UCSF Faculty Development Fellowship I attended, I have been working on my growth mindset; having now read upward of 15 books on my Kindle, I am officially a convert. I love my Kindle. At least for our current situation. Azul is easy to use, definitely not the same as a tablet (no bells, no whistles) and I very much enjoy reading on it, though I do find myself wishing I could flip more easily back and forth between parts of a book. I particularly enjoy reading on the Kindle when I am reading a good book. Luckily, There are so many good books.

***

So, what are the Jordan Polings reading these days?

Well, Jonah's favorite books this month include the entire series of the Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior graphic novel series. He's currently reading the second of the Wings of Fire graphic novel, which he has been anxiously awaiting and found its way to us via the SoCo library queue this week. He is, once again, grateful for the Kindle Fire and its colored pages. Dillon just finished Lodestar, the 689-page fifth book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Because of technical difficulties with our Kindles, he is now reading The House on the Cerulean Sea, which is a beautiful novel that I just finished (recommended by my friend, Rachel Friedman). Brynna is obsessed with Anne of Green Gables (we recently finished the first book, but may also have checked out the graphic novel at least a few times in the last few months), Pippi Longstocking, and Little House on the Prairie -- all available from the digital library. I am reading the Pull of the Stars, a depressing, poignant novel set in Ireland about the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Paul is reading The Fall of Neverdark, part of a fantasy series.

Lucky us. The bookworms are happy.

PS. For all of you who are physically closer to the library than we are, I encourage you to visit your local library this week and think of us, pining to be there with you. Pick out a good book, smell it, read it, and think of us.

PPS. We are considering ways to share our library access with our friends here in La Josefina. Pretty great that Santa Rosa has a good selection of books in Spanish!