NLB

I've been in Singapore for 8 years. In all that time, I've been to the library 3x. Twice at Esplanade and once at Choa Chu Kang. As a PR, I paid a one-time fee of $20 for the membership a few years back and now I can borrow books anytime.

These past two weeks, I have been visiting the Woodlands branch more often. Borrowing more books than I have done in the last 8 years. Funny because I've got a Kindle and I usually buy books now in Amazon. For some unknown reason, I decided to visit the library last week and probably spent at least 1 hour looking around. I did find a few books to borrow but some of the ones advertised as available are not in their shelf.

What I like though with the library here is you can search for a book and reserve it online. You have to pay a small fine of $1.55 but I figured that's okay as long as I get the book that I want. They have a limit of 6 books you can reserve and 6 books you can borrow at a time. I've already got around 9 books under my name that I've borrowed and/or reserved and I think as long as I can see the books in the library, I will probably borrow from there instead of buying it online.

I've had to buy some of the books in Amazon as it is not offered in the library. But one or two is better than buying 10. So I guess it's still a better bargain. Sorry to my sis Malou who also borrows some of my online books. There's just so much to save by utilizing the library here.



Of course, I feel sad when I see the books that I borrow and the deplorable conditions they are in. I am so tempted to put plastic covers in them to make them look more cared for but I don't know if that's okay. I just can't stand seeing books being abused like this. I seriously don't know why book lovers can't be good to the books they read.

By the way, they do have a promotion in the Woodlands library where one can bring their old books and share it with others. I've been meaning to do that since I've got a few that I've already read and don't know what to do anymore. Being able to share the books with someone else is better than letting it rot in my library.

I'm looking forward to borrowing more books in the NLB. I won't be giving up my Kindle just yet as I still have to buy some books online. But I am glad I have a way now of saving a bit of money courtesy of our national library.