Bookworm

Have you checked out your local library lately? You may be pleasantly surprised at what you find! Save yourself some dough by looking at your library's selection before you order that book. I live in a small town, but I use my small-town library all of the time. (So much so, that they know my name and make book recommendations for me!) These are some of my favorite features of the tiny library in my neighborhood and all of them are free:

• There's always a box of great magazines for $.10 each
• Story hour once a week for a nice diversion for the little one
• Summer reading programs to earn free meals, among other prizes
• A fairly extensive dvd collection which often is quicker than Netflix for new releases
• A box of coupons from previous Sunday's paper sits out for the taking
• The geneology room is loaded with resources if you're into tracing your roots
• Library book sales are perfect for bargain hunters
• The books on cd are perfect for road trips
• Cookbooks abound for getting out of recipe ruts
• Free conference rooms for meetings
• Bulletin boards for advertising
• Quieter (and cheaper) than a coffee shop for getting computer work done

*These are features of my small-town library. Imagine the possibilities if you live in a large city!