Proud card carrying member!

Library card that is…I am constantly amazed of how many adults do not have a library card. Why wouldn’t you. First of all it is free and most of their media is free to use. The library always has people in using their bank of computers offered. And okay there are the normal books of virtually every subject under the sun, including about the sun too for that matter. But wait there’s more! Mine offers huge selections of music CD’s, magazines, even free movies and documentaries on VHS and some on DVD. (I know some libraries that charge a nominal fee on DVD’s and probably have a better selection than mine too.) Back near my hometown, a library even provides fishing poles! But my all time favorite, are audio books. This love for me goes back over twenty years ago, when most people I heard of renting these were elderly with poor eye sight. And for a good deal of time, I felt a bit guilty that my check out audiobook was something one of them was just waiting to hear! And I never saw anyone else checking them out. These were the days when they were on cassettes only. Well the library may have had some even older form reel-to-reel device but hey I was hip!

I’ll confess that growing up, the library, and books in general, did not have much of an appeal to me. But that all change, I realize that as an adult, I still didn’t read much. So cassettes, with someone reading to me, were simply wonderful. I even purchased some authors I liked that the library didn’t have all the authors work and would resell some and donate others to the library when I was finished listening. For a while my style was a bit cramp when the format changed to more on CD. My walkman had gotten a good workout for me with the cassette tapes over a few years. The thing was I didn’t have to sit and enjoy a book (a fine experience in it’s own right, grant you); but I could go for a walk, do some of my yard work or house work, I would take it to the office to listen during breaks too during my gainfully employed days. (No it wasn’t why that ended, in case you were wondering.)

But I was behind the times…and the times they are a changin’
My library and maybe yours too have an online consortium with other libraries to bring audio (and written books) to my home computer. Life just keeps getting better!
Well just like with the CD’s (without purchasing something portable), this was great but I had to be near my CD player or with these latest and greatest, near my computer. That work but I finally got jiggy with it (do people still use that to sound hip?) and recently got an MP3 player where I can download from the library site to my computer and then to my player and I’m free once again to listen to the countless books that I would have never taken the time to read.

What do you like best about your library? Any other audio book fans out there?

A bit of a QVC junkie turned online seller!

Like so many, I enjoy watching QVC! So much so that I started selling their return merchandise, mostly clothing. Over the years, I've shipped thousands of items to others who like to buy at a discount.

Last year, I focused on starting my own website with some of my QVC clothing and other items that I purchased elsewhere and just didn't use, some brand new merchandise and some collectible items. Really a bit of everything. I seem a bit partial to candles (don't I?).

One thing I found though is it isn't easy to have buyers find me. Guess I had a 'build it and they will come' mentality! While sales have been slow as will generally happen during the summer months, I've been reading about blogs and blogging. Hey you are never too old to learn, right?! So here goes, my first blog with a bit about me and what I do during these hard economic times to earn some spending money. Stop by and take a look around www.simplygottahaveit.com