Loving the Library

I made a trip to the public library in downtown St. Paul yesterday to gather resources for a spring project on mythical creatures. The whole shelf of books on unicorns in the far reaches of adult non-fiction came as a surprise to me. A whole shelf!

The library is one of my favorite places. When the kids were smaller we visited so often, the librarians greeted us by name. They hunted down elusive titles, recommended authors, forgave fines, repaired torn pages and hauled stacks of books to the car when we accidentally checked out more materials than we could carry. In turn, I offered a listening ear when they moved elderly parents into assisted living facilities and when budget cuts eliminated positions and library hours. There were summers we diligently recorded every minute we spent reading in order to claim the (lame) prize of an inflatable baseball, months we borrowed nothing but origami books or cookbooks, many days when the "free" resources we couldn't locate under the couch or beds had to be replaced.

I am grateful that my children share my love for reading and have no complaints about whiling away an afternoon wandering through the stacks, pulling out the titles that grab our attention, sitting down on the floor to begin reading while other patrons maneuver around us.  The possibilities are endless: learn to fold a paper crane, plan a dinosaur birthday party, assemble and frost an impressive cake, wean a child, travel to another country, explore a culture, repair an oven door, paint a room, learn a yoga pose, draw a unicorn.

After finding the books on fantastic beasts we needed, I wandered through the little-explored biography section. I enjoyed some of the titles:

You Better Watch Out by Greg Malone
Dreams Can Come True by Susan Boyle
The Good Fight by Walter Mondale

And two of my curious favorites:
Never Tell Our Business to Strangers by Jennifer Mascia
A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All by Luke Dempsey

I wondered on the way home what title would be appropriate for a book about my complicated, messy, wonderful life and was disappointed that A Supremely Bad Idea was already taken by those three wacky bird lovers. Here are some alternatives:

No, I Don't Have Any Thoughts about Supper
Mission Impossible: When Ministry and Motherhood Collide
Love, Love, Love: That's What It's All About

Have you read any good books lately?
What would be a good title for a book about your life?