This is just a quick peon to the place that houses books. I am so very proud to say that my very first ever job was in a library. I still feel lucky to have entered the world of a paycheck in a place that surrounded me with the tools of the trade of a philosopher and reader and now 30 day challenge writer.

I also remember that special feeling of being upgraded to an adult library card at a very tender age in my hometown. Which meant that they trusted me to check out more than a few books at a time. I spent a lot of my adolescent years perusing those limited stacks.

In due course, I upgraded from that small Carnegie Library to Carnegie Mellon University, and promptly marched myself to the the house of books, to apply for my work-study job. I haven't the faintest memory how it happened. But within just a week, it became clear that I must have had some sort of bookish fairy on my shoulder, because apparently, as all my friends in the food service sector told me, only upper classmen could manage to secure the cushy jobs at the library.

My largesse might have had something to do with the hours I selected - 10pm to 3am. And even better than that, I was installed on the 3rd floor. The periodical floor. This was a wonderland of employment bliss. First of all, I was the sole employee on that floor, apart from the occasional walk-through by the supervisor, what I did those 5 hours was my sole discretion. Since it was just periodicals, I didn't receive carts of books to be reshelved at regular intervals, like the folks who worked the floors below me. And so my mission each shift was just to ensure that all periodicals were back in their designated places for a fresh looking floor for the re-opening at 8am.

I proudly held on to that job in the library until I finished my degree, thereby ensuring my share of freshmen ended up in the cafeteria.

Is it any wonder that I ended up living in the area of the busiest library in the US?

Here's a quick view of the A-M of books I have recently read: