Getting your own library card at any age is a small, weird, wonderful kind of freedom.

A card with your name on it is a small piece of standing in the world. Your own account, your own choices about what to read, nobody signing off on it, and a building full of things that cost nothing to take home. Freedom usually arrives in this format rather than a dramatic one: a bit of paperwork that quietly removes the need to ask.

If you do not have one, it takes about ten minutes and some proof of where you live. Then borrow something you would be slightly embarrassed to buy. Nothing you take out has to be worth the money.