When I say, "Let's have an adventure!" chances are good that what I actually mean is "Let's think about having an adventure!" Face it: adventures are expensive, time-consuming, and stressful. For me – maybe for you, too – just pondering an adventure is enough, and the best place for that sort of thing is the library.
So, how about it? Do you feel like having an adventure today?
For the would-be traveler, check out a travel guide from our nonfiction collection. I recommend DK's Eyewitness Travel Guides, known for their full-color photographs and detailed descriptions of must-see locations. For the less ambitious, stay close to home with "A Food Lover's Guide to Kansas City," by Sylvie Murphy.
What better way to pretend you're planning a trip than by studying a foreign language? With a state library card, any Kansas resident can access the Mango Languages database for free lessons on up to 40 languages, including French, Spanish, or Italian for novice adventurers and things like Farsi, Urdu, and Tagalog for the seasoned globe-trotter. Mango is also available as an app on iPhone and Android devices, so you can take your language lessons with you everywhere. To apply for your Kansas library card (not to be confused with an Andover library card), bring a valid Kansas driver's license to the library's front desk.
Don't forget to stop by the library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, for a brief Mango Languages' demonstration during our International Talk Like a Pirate Day party. We'll have snacks, a treasure hunt, and a family-friendly pirate movie.
If pretend adventures aren't your thing, nonfiction adventure stories are a great way to live vicariously through other people. For an armchair adventure of your own, try "Near Death on the High Seas: True Stories of Disaster and Survival," by Cecil Kuhne for amazing true stories of shipwrecks, dangerous voyages, and storms at sea that will keep you on the edge of your very comfy seat. Alternatively, try Robert Kurson's "Shadow Divers: the True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II" and follow along as real divers try to identify the wreck of a German U-boat that, according to government records, shouldn't exist.
If you think you'd like to take your adventure past the planning stages, Andover Library is also a passport application processing facility. Agents are available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (excluding any day the library is closed). Visit www.travel.state.gov or call the library and ask to speak to a passport agent to learn what you need to bring with you to apply. It can take up to six weeks for your passport to arrive in the mail, so give yourself plenty of lead time before your trip.
At the library, we're here for all of your adventure planning needs, whether your adventures are real or imaginary, because planning really is the best part. Follow-through is exceedingly overrated.
(Originally published in the Andover American 9/5/12)
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