Published 2026-06-23
tag(s): #books #pic #link-post
Remember when I mentioned I was behind on my RSS feeds?
Well, almost a month
ago, Nathan posted about his
(mis)adventures getting libraries cards in different counties. The post unlocked some
memories...
I was about 6? maybe 7? I am texting my mom as I write this. Maybe she gets back to me before I finish the post :)
Anyway, we lived outside the City of Buenos Aires, on the western suburbs. Which were not
(and, are not?) that far off from the vibe of Westeros in Game of Thrones, at least that
neighborhood.
The trip to downtown Buenos Aires meant taking a rarely-on-time bus, then the train and
finally another bus or subway. It could not have been less than one and a half hours. Which
is a lot to handle with two young kids, but my mom did it anyway.
We would go to this big, brutalist building, where we would check out a bunch of books at a time (to make the trip worth it, I guess?). It was there that I found this hardcover collection of Astérix comics, I read so many of them. They were hilarious.
Many years later I was able to reminisce about these characters with the owner of the small
company where I started working as a developer. He lived in France for a few years, I
think?.
Just last week I was leaving the office and a coworker mentioned that before my current
employer was acquired, all servers had these weird names from a French comic. When my first
guess was correct, he was surprised, as he did not know the series.
Neither did my parents, for that matter. To this day I don't think they would know what
Astérix is. But that's the magic of libraries. None of us had to know anything, just to
show up and browse and be open to discovery.
I will be forever grateful to my mom for making the effort of taking my sister and I to the
library. Also because she was always holding a book in her hand, no matter where we were. I
cannot imagine a world where I wouldn't love reading, and I know it is because of how much
she led by example and inspired me.
When Juan was about three years old, I found out that near our usual Target there was a branch
of the Jefferson County Public Library.
At the time, part of our routine was for me take Juan shopping for groceries when I got back
from work. So one day, we took a short detour, got our library card, and started a bi-weekly
habit that would last for a few years: to drop by the Columbine branch, browse the aisles,
then pick 3 or 4 books to checkout.
It was there that we found our first Daisy Hirst
book, "Alphonse, that is not OK to do". I have an Alphonse sticker on my laptop (and a
signed Alphonse and Natalie drawing in my home office 👀).
That's also where Juan found a ton of Thomas the Tank Engine books, and I gently
pushed him to the science section, where to read lots of pictures books about spiders and
dinosaurs and space.
A few years later, the branch closed for renovations, and our routine died down a bit. After
they reopened we visited often, but not as often.
A sign of the passage of time is that by then Juan was old enough that we would bike a couple
miles to drop off books, instead of driving.
Shortly after we unpacked in our rental in Jersey City, I found out we had a branch of the Jersey City Public Library two blocks from our place. I had to wait until we had a couple statements with our new address, and then we eagerly walked to the building to get our card.
One thing I remember about this day is that they had three library card designs, Juan insisted he didn't want the one I liked...and then we ended up getting a separate card for him anyway. I could have totally gotten the one I liked. =P
The other thing I remember is that I felt that this wrapped up our move to the east coast,
because of much our library visits were part of life in Jeffco. Yep, this is it, now we are
definitely settled!
Little did I know that our new neighborhood wouldn't be kind to us, and about a year later
we would end up moving in a rush...
The library was great, though. As all libraries are.
I checked out this month's office Book Club novel from the Secaucus Library ❤️
