by Michelle Hozey

Created on: August 23, 2010

Mom bought me a small suitcase with wheels for my birthday. “You’re going to break your back carrying around that heavy backpack all the time,” she said. “Take this to work instead.”

I rolled my suitcase in through the employee’s entrance. At the time clock my supervisor asked, “Are you going on a trip?”

“No. It was a birthday present. For books.”

She laughed and shook her head as she watched me unload my treasures. Books, CDs, DVDs and magazines kept coming out of the suitcase. For a minute I felt a little like Mary Poppins. My supervisor looked as if she expected me to pull a lamp out of the bottomless bag.

I was the only library employee to bring a suitcase to work every day. I was also the only employee who actually used the staff override to check out more than 50 items at once.

As I stood at the counter checking all the items back into the computer, my supervisor asked, “Do you really read all those books?”

“Well… no,” I told her honestly.

I held up a novel. “But I did read this one,” I said. “And this one.” I clunked an oversized travel book on the counter.

“Why do you check so many out if you can’t possibly read them all?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I guess I just like books.” I wondered how she and everyone else could refrain from checking books out at the rate I did. There were just far too many materials. Too much to learn, too much to enjoy, too much to watch and too much to hear.

My interests changed almost daily. One day I would go to work and check out all the books on paper crafts or beading. The next day I wouldn’t be able to rest until I had learned everything there was to know about UFO sightings or memory improvement techniques. I have to admit, I didn’t retain a great deal of that information, but I sure did enjoy immersing myself in it for a few days.

Whenever new music crossed the circulation desk, I had to give it a listen. Expanding my musical horizons, I called it. My mom always told me that I would never know if I liked something or not until I tried it. I think I definitely took those words to heart when I worked at the library.

An employee of the library I regularly visit now just told me a couple weeks ago that I was the only patron she’d seen bring a suitcase on wheels to the library every week. 

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