Yesterday, I was wandering around town and having a generally good time. I haven’t been to the library in a while because I knew I had some fines I needed to pay off. One short story collection I got the last time I was there was so bad that I think it ended up in the trash. Whoops. Regardless, I was there to pay for it with the knowledge that at least one copy of that literary upchuck will not be forced upon another reader.

Of course, paying what’s due and going about my way couldn’t be that easy. With anything established by a government–whether local or broad–you can expect long lines, an inability to assist you when you get to the end of the line, and a long wait afterwards while they decide what to do with you. I didn’t get to pay the fees, and I was also blocked from checking out further books until some arbitrary date when they think they will be done “reviewing my case.”

“Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” — Oscar Wilde

Luckily (or tragically), I was on foot that day and had already walked a good distance to get there, so I wasn’t about to be thwarted so easily. Went on upstairs and read what I came there to find. However, I also wanted to bring some things home with me. There’s a bookstore in this library where they sell off all of the books they have taken out of circulation due to damage, lack of interest, or a myriad of other reasons. The prices were incredible, and I found several books that related to writing as well as programming, art, web design, and more.

• Poet’s Market, 2004 - $3 (outdated, but the long-standing, credible venues will still be in there–it was for a friend anyway)
• The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law - $1
• Grisham’s The Firm (hardback), $3
• Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, $3

A total of $10 for four books. All in next-to-perfect condition. The AP Stylebook was an especially good find for me, but I saw tons of books on everything from C#/.NET to learning how to use Corel and Adobe Photoshop. This experienced opened my eyes. You can get your hands on very important career-enhancing material for a minimal cost!

If your local library has a free or low-cost book store, I would recommend checking it out frequently. While some of the books might be two or three years old, the knowledge is still useful if it’s a good book in the first place. Even for programmers, who work in a constantly changing and cutting-edge field, you can pick up one of these cheap how-to books to get started, and you can supplement your knowledge later by learning off of the web.

Don’t forget about the rest of the books in the library, though. You can check out a book for a while, absorb it, and not have to pay anything for it. The only downside to that method is that you won’t have it on your desk for reference at any point, and for certain topics, you need that.

As a freelancer, you need to keep moving forward in your skills. More knowledge is equal to more money. Even for physical laborers, if you know how to lay a brick wall better than your competition, you’ll receive more work. If you can write in a variety of styles, more buyers will want to continue their working relationship with you.

An easy way to do that is to read. Find all of the books that relate to your field, and read them. Even if you remember only a couple things from a book, you will find that to be useful later on down the road. If you read several books, you’ll be adding a few things from each and create an impressive knowledge base for yourself. It’s not cost-prohibitive, and you’ll earn far much more in return.

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