Today, Kim Paras, Weekly Reader's Manager of Copy Editing, muses on why she loves libraries.

My public library recently put a stack of forms on the counter that read "I love my library because ..." Beneath that opener was a bunch of blank lines.

Cool! The nerd in me was eager to tell my librarian why I loved coming to the library, why I visited so often, and why I would sometimes spend hours upstairs-"Where did that tall girl with the glasses go?"–only to reemerge with no books in hand.

Why do I love the library? For starters, I love to read! And to be surrounded by shelves and shelves of books? Oh gosh, just give me access to food and lock me in--seriously, I won’t mind. Sometimes I go to the library knowing exactly what I want. "It's Halloween and I'm in the mood for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None." At other times I enter thinking I know what I want--"It's time to tackle Chekhov"--but then I leave the library with something entirely different under my arm, say, The Reader. "I must read the book before seeing the movie!"

When I was little and my mom would take me to the library, I would feel as if I'd entered a different world. I would begin wandering down the aisles, carefully slipping books from their shelves and reading the back covers, and everything outside--school, homework, even other people--would be forgotten. The library has the same effect on me today. The first thing that strikes me when I walk through the doors of the library is the quiet. Perhaps it is stating the obvious for me to point out that the library is quiet, but when you're there, no one has to shuss you. You just know, you know? You walk inside and you have taken a trip to, well, wherever you wish. You can lose yourself in novels, mysteries, biographies, history, poetry, plays, or nothing but dictionaries. And that doesn't begin to cover everything. No wonder some people actually get lost in the library.

The library also has that "library smell." Not a bad smell, mind you. Just a certain smell, the way school has a certain smell and the way a new car has a certain smell. And the library has its own sounds. Quiet, careful footsteps in the next aisle over. Creaking floors heard from rooms overhead.

For me, the library is an escape. When I'm in the library, 50 other people may be there too, but I feel like I'm alone, wandering the aisles, carefully slipping books from their shelves.

What do you love about the library?