Recently, at one of our Bookmobile stops, we saw our oldest patron. After handing me her returns, she said that she used to get six books and could finish them all by the next time we came.
Now, she gets three and can barely get through them. She told us she would be 102 in a couple of weeks and she was on the verge of tears. It is devastating to her that now she can only read a half hour at a time and sometimes forgets what she has read.
Reading was something she loved, and I can’t help remembering the time I have spent lost in the shelves at the library.
As a child the bookshelves were taller, the books were colorful, and the stories waiting for me were mesmerizing. Summer reading programs with prizes and games enticed my siblings and I to dive into reading in the summer when we spent the majority of our time outside.
I had a favorite tree to bike to with my book and read in the branches for hours in the summer, getting lost in the Magic Tree House, The Fire Within, and Harry Potter. Every year at the annual book sale my siblings and I filled a box a piece with books of all shapes and sizes with stories from different cultures and countries.
More recently I have found that audiobooks through Libby hold my attention as the hustle and bustle of being an adult keep me busy. If you find the right reader, you can be drawn into any story.
And, to be honest, this also keeps the books from being late or lost. During the quarantine I, like many others, expanded my already planned garden. Listening to a book while digging up my grass, using the drill to put screws into a garden frame, and creating my raised bed helped my multitasking brain focus.
On the bookmobile, we have books on gardening which include Usborne Gardening for Beginners for kids and The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest for adults. Of course, I consulted these after the garden was planted and producing vegetables but that’s what happens when the library is closed during planting season.
After being off the road for four months it has been a pleasure bringing books to kids, the elderly, and many in between and watching their faces light up as they come on the bookmobile for the first time or the thousandth time. We have regulars who are excited to have us back and new patrons who have discovered us and are excited to shake off the work-from-home blues.
Our services also help homeschool families who look forward to checking out our wide selection of non-fiction and fiction books.
The pandemic might have slowed us down, but we are up and running again. We have started our own Instagram account, @mybcplbookmobile, where we love sharing photos of our stops, four-legged patrons, and program information. We look forward to seeing you on our route.
Margaret Pflueger is the bookmobile assistant at the Bartholomew County Public Library and can be reached at mPflueger@mybcpl.org
