PRINT ADS

Have you looked at those gas prices lately? Whew! And they just keep going up. The good weather is luring many people to ride bicycles to work or to the store. Walking is a great way to cut back on gas consumption. Car pooling becomes more inviting for trips to work or taking the kids to their activities.

Besides reducing gas consumption, most of us are looking for ways to conserve our spending in other areas as well. I can’t recommend telling your kids to eat less (they won’t) or stop out-growing their clothes (they can’t), but I can offer a way to cut back on money spent for leisure activities: Visit one of the La Crosse County Library System facilities in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska or West Salem.

Do you want something to occupy your time while you wait for your kids at their swimming lessons? Don’t BUY a book; borrow a paperback at the library that you can slip in your purse to pull out when those precious free moments occur.

At your fingertips and at no charge, in fiction and nonfiction, are hair-raising adventures, love and romance, blood and guts, spine-tingling ghost stories and mystifying mysteries. Or ...

Ride the Wild West with outlaws and Indians; work a cattle drive; travel by wagon train across the desert and the mountains; or experience the shoot-out at the OK corral.

Fight alongside the courageous patriots who lived and died for freedom and independence in the Revolutionary War; march with the soldiers who fought in the Civil War; feel the fear, cold and hunger of prisoners at Auschwitz; or slog through the jungles of Vietnam.

Find a lost love; feel goose bumps as ghostly images glide down the curving staircase; run from the natives as they attack your exploring party; track a serial killer with police detectives; or laugh at the zany antics of the Marx Brothers. (Don’t know who they are? Look it up at the library.)

The La Crosse County libraries can offer you any type of story you want to experience in many different formats.

If you love curling up with a good book you can find Westerns, romance, historical sagas, mysteries and true crime.

Nonfiction information abounds on just about every subject imaginable:

q Not only cookbooks but books on nutrition, freezing and canning your own food and growing a garden.

q If you have always wanted to travel, read travelogues or plan a trip using our latest travel books.

q Discover a new hobby or improve your golf game.

q How-to books on most topics ranging from “Frugal Living for Dummies” to “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being a Cheapskate,” and a large selection of other topics.

If you are more oriented to the visual we have a large selection of DVDs and videos for adults and children. Save the cost of driving and buying tickets to the movies by reserving the latest DVD release at www.lacrossecountylibrary.com. Pick it up at your favorite branch, all for free.

When you were a kid did you enjoy being read to? It might not be quite the same, but we have books on cassette or CD. “Read” a book while you travel to work, weed the garden or prepare a meal.

How much do you pay for subscriptions to your favorite magazines? Do you enjoy articles about hunting or fishing? Crafts? Sports? Health and fitness? Fashion and beauty? Celebrities? Save the cost of the subscription; most issues can be checked out for three weeks.

Love music but hate to pay almost $20 for a CD in the store? Browse our popular music collection to listen to your favorite artist before either buying the CD or paying for a download.

Picture books, beginning readers, chapter books, children’s novels and young adult novels as well as nonfiction books are available for any reading level. Would you believe fairy tales are considered nonfiction?

Do your kids get bored with the same old stuff at home?

q Don’t buy another stuffed animal — check out our puppets.

q Family fun bags contain a number of items: books, toys, puppets, games and a number of suggestions for interaction between mom or dad and the little one.

q Story times for 3-6 year-olds are held almost all year long with both morning and evening schedules.

q No-school-day programs occur two or three times during the school year.

q The summer reading program in June and July has something going on for every age level. Calendars for youth activities are on www.lacrossecountylibrary.com all year long.

The library is the place to go for entertainment and other needs. Borrow movies, music, audio books and magazines; use the internet; browse the shelves; chat with friends; study for tests; work on school projects; and stretch your mind, at no cost to you.

Even when the material you are looking for is in another library there is no cost to the library patron. The best investment you will ever make is the five minutes you spend filling out an application for a library card. What’s in YOUR wallet?

Judy Jameson is a staff member at the La Crosse County Library System’s administrative center in Holmen.

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