📚 Bookworms Abroad

Little Free Library in Godella, Spain

Wherever they go, bookworms are gonna bookworm.

Some of my favorite childhood memories are those summers spent at the library. In rural Kentucky, our summer entertainment options were few. The library was one of the few places that held programs for kids, and my mom made sure we participated. (We also participated in that nostalgic Pizza Hut BOOK IT!® reading program to earn those Personal Pan Pizzas® during the school year.)

Every library I’ve ever been in has a similar sensation to the one back home in Kentucky — the scent of old books, cold air conditioning, wooden tables that make a slight creak as you shift in your seat, and — in those days, anyway — card catalogs outlining every single book in the building. It’s a feeling of “home” as much to me as the gentle karst landscape of southcentral Kentucky. I so looked forward to library days, carrying as many books out of that library as my little arms could hold. We’d play fun games, listen to a story on the carpet, and disappear into a magical world for just a few hours.

This particular rural library even had a bookmobile, making rounds around the county to ensure those who couldn’t get to the library in person still had access to books, magazines, and more. It often appeared at my grandmother’s house, and since we stayed with her quite a bit in the summers and after school, my sister and I had the pleasure of exploring its shelves. We’d carefully make our selections for the week, and the next week, we’d have a whole new set of books to choose from. (P.S. If you haven’t yet read The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, it’s worth the time. It’s an early version of a bookmobile in Appalachia in the 1930s.)

If my mom encouraged my lifelong love of reading, time spent at the library cemented it.

It will come as no surprise to anyone, then, that maintaining access to libraries and books was of the utmost importance to me as we planned our move abroad. Since I was an early adopter of e-readers (my first was a Barnes & Noble Nook way back in 2011), of course, I had a Kindle that would make the trip with me. But what would happen to my library cards? The truth is, I rarely buy books. I borrow them.

I love audiobooks, so those are always in rotation via Libby, Hoopla, or Spotify.

The idea of purchasing every. single. book. hurt my budget-loving heart.

As I tend to do with everything, I dove headfirst into research. My kids still needed to be able to read in English, too, and Will also reads the occasional book. How could I ensure my family still had access to the materials we all enjoy?

Our library cards from our suburban Nashville town have to be re-verified every few years. That was a simple solution since we still own a house in that county. I receive a notification via email that I need to re-verify, I reply, and the cards are renewed for another few years.

I’ve had a Nashville Public Library card for many, many years — since our move to the area in 2008. At that time, when Nashville issued library cards, they issued them for 10 or 20 years. I don’t know if they still do that, but mine has an expiration date in the 2030s. 😮 Suffice it to say, I don’t need to worry about my Nashville card anytime soon. I use it without a VPN or any other issues here in Spain, but I nearly exclusively use the Libby app to read ebooks and audiobooks. If I had to purchase access to the Nashville library as a Middle Tennessee resident, the fee is relatively low — $10/year. (I can’t think of a better way to spend $10/year, can you?)

When we moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the summer in 2024, Will, the kids, and I went to the Wake County Public Library to get cards. While the selection isn’t nearly as good as my Tennessee library cards, they do occasionally have books that those libraries don’t have. The waits are also much shorter than at any other library in Middle Tennessee.

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