Library books

make a frequent appearance in this house.
There was a time when we all visited the local library on at least a weekly basis. It has changed now.
The Black Cat (my youngest sister) was the first to stop going. She is the least interested in reading. I doubt she does much, if any, these days. Her spare daylight hours are mostly spent outside if the weather is good. Inside she pursues "messy" crafts or does jigsaw puzzles while watching television.
Middle Cat always has a book "on the go" but watches more television. Her partner prefers television but he grew up in a household where there were no books at all and the only newspaper was written in Greek. They have two bookcases, mostly filled with books from when their boys were young or medical textbooks from Middle Cat's career.
Brother Cat though is a different story. He will usually have two books he is actually reading, one fiction and one non-fiction. There will always be another pile of up to a dozen awaiting his attention. 
He knows his way around libraries.
And then there is the Senior Cat. He has stopped visiting the library but only  because of the difficulty of getting there. He still borrows books. It's simple. All he has to do is say, "I need more to read." When he does I take the little pile of books back to the library and I  bring home another larger pile. He will look through them and choose three or four and I will take the other two or three back. 
The Senior Cat also has other reading matter. He is down to three jam-packed bookshelves - and piles of books by the bed, by both the chairs he sits in and in other places. This time last year there were seven bookshelves stuffed to capacity but he gave away his "magic" books - the books about conjuring - to someone who makes his living from it and who genuinely appreciates their value and a great many gardening and woodworking books to people he knew would use them.
And that leaves me. The shelves are packed to capacity, double and triple stacked in places. There is my collection of dictionaries and books about linguistics and languages, my knitting and crochet books, a handful of cookery books, and my collection of children's literature which the local children use like a library. People keep telling me "you'll have to get rid of some of those". 
Yes, I know that - but not yet.
 And I still use the library - at least once a week.