Cynthia Sax is the author of the upcoming The Seen Trilogy, on sale in July starting with Part I: He Watches Me (7/2). She stopped by to discuss how important libraries have been to her.
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I grew up dirt poor in rural Canada. Our house didn’t have running water. If the chickens didn’t lay eggs in the winter, we didn’t eat. We didn’t have money for ‘extra’ things like new clothes (we benefited from donations), and fancy school supplies. We certainly didn’t have money for TV or entertainment.
What we DID have was a library within walking distance.
At least once a week, I’d visit the library and spend hours there, driving the very patient librarian crazy. I’d return home with as many books as my little arms could carry. When I saw those books stacked up on the bedroom floor, I felt rich, the equal of anyone else. Those books allowed me to see exotic places and experience new things.
Because it was a small library and I was a fast reader, I soon read every single book in their circulation. I read a Spanish-English dictionary, a book on small engine repair, and the autobiographies of successful people. Many of those successful people started out like me with no money.
You see the thing with poverty is… if you don’t know success is possible, it is very difficult to become successful (whatever your definition of success is). I bombarded the librarian with questions. She ordered books to answer some of those questions. She also ordered books to help me with school projects.
We moved and a new librarian, as nice and kind and patient as the previous librarian was, helped me find scholarships for university. When I graduated, I used the computers in the university library for job searching, sending over 800 resumes to land my first permanent job.
Today, I live in a house with THREE indoor bathrooms. I have food in my pantry, multiple computers, bookshelves filled with books. I’m certainly not wealthy like Blaine, the billionaire hero of He Watches Me, not by any stretch of my overactive imagination, but I feel rich and extremely fortunate.
This is why I’ll always support libraries and librarians. Because I know right now there’s a little girl standing in a library, thinking success isn’t possible for people like her. She’s reaching for that one book that will change her life. A librarian placed that book there.
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Thank you for sharing your story, Cynthia!
– Annie