A Library Card Can Do More Than Money Ever Will

There's an inspiring story from the New York Times bestselling author Gary Paulsen, and it changed how I think about spending time in libraries.

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.

The bestselling author Gary Paulsen once told a room full of teachers that a librarian saved his life.

He explained that home wasn’t safe. His parents drank, they fought, and he spent hours in the woods instead, hunting, fishing, and sleeping outside when he could.

But winters in Minnesota were harsh. The cold pushed him to look for shelter. One afternoon, he noticed a building lit from the inside. He opened the door.

It was the local library.

At first, he only went inside the library to get warm. A chair by the heat and four walls. And the librarian didn’t press him, nor tell him to leave. Then one day, she gave him a card. Told him he could borrow books. Later, she began recommending titles, one after another.

Paulsen said his life improved shortly after. He started reading and he kept coming back. And what stuck with him wasn’t only the books, but the fact that someone noticed him and cared without asking for anything in return.

Years later, those books ins…