Branching Out: Willowbranch & Brentwood

I'm excited to pursue this goal that I've set for myself of visiting ALL of the Jacksonville Public Library branches in 2020 - read here for my intro post for this project. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances concerning the spread of the novel coronavirus, our libraries are now closed indefinitely for awhile. I did get to squeeze in two branch visits before everything shut down and I may just do a little expose on the e-books side of JPL in the meantime. Stay tuned!

Willowbranch Branch Library

I visited Willowbranch Library on a rather dreary Valentine's Day afternoon. I had partook in a beautiful singing bowl style meditation at the Be Still Float Studio, grabbed a bite to eat with my first visit to The Stuffed Beaver (if you haven't been, you need to fix that ASAP), and since I was in the neighborhood, I took a swing over to Willowbranch. For those who don't know, this library is located on Park Street about a 1/3 of a mile southwest of the King Street district. It's nice to see this particular location back open, as it was closed for quite some time due to flooding damage from heavy rains about five or six years ago.

I enjoy Willowbranch because they have one of the better graphic novel selections that I've seen in the library system and, the best part, the main area for browsing with its many and beautifully large windows. The light, even on this particularly cloudy day, is so welcoming and makes this room of the library feel wide open. I would easily sit here and read for awhile if time would allow.

After taking in my surroundings for a few and reorienting myself, I began to meander. I browsed through the nonfiction section where I found a handful of books, including a rather condescending book about budgeting (seriously, don't waste your time on it) and The Art of Rogue One, which talks about the concepts and journey behind the creation of my most favorite Star Wars flick of the bunch. I read every single passage.

I continued through the fiction sections and found a few graphic novels that have been on my list for some time. The pleasant surprise of this particular stack was Knives & Ink, an entire book about chefs and the whys behind their tattoos. Sad to say, I only ended up using Eoin Colfer's Illegal towards my 2020 Book Challenges, but the rest were quick one or two day reads in the midst of some busy-ness that I had going on.

I was excited on this day, as it was the first time that I had brought my new book tote along with me. Every year that participants complete Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge, you receive a 30% off code for an order in their store. This year, I bought this sturdy Read Harder tote bag for my library visits and it fit everything perfectly. I don't plan to leave for a library visit without it.

One interesting note about Willowbranch, and a handful of the other libraries in town, is that they have their own "Friends Of" nonprofit. There's a quick list of those nonprofits available here. When you hear about the library book sales that happen once or twice a year, these are the groups that put those together, as well as advocate on behalf of our public library system.

Brentwood Branch Library

I think I may have mentioned it before, but the Brentwood Branch is my new "home" library. Meaning that it is the branch closest to me where I'll go to pick up my holds when I order them online. My new place is pretty equi-distant between Brentwood and the Dallas Graham Branch, but I just chose Brentwood because I'm more likely to be driving in its direction.

While I had heard or seen the name of this branch prior to moving to my new neighborhood, I had never actually visited it until I moved over here. As you can tell by the picture, it's a pretty unique building as this library branch was repurposed from an old movie theatre!