[footy]

I was not born in Canada, but I chose to immigrate here and it's one of the top 5 best choices I've ever made. I have access to so much that in other places would be wildly expensive. My life is richer due to the diversity of the people I am surrounded by, if I bought every book I borrowed from the library last year it would have cost $3000 or more, and even after moving away from a large city I have access to public transit good enough to cover most of my needs.

It's actually really wild to think I spent a couple of years working in Boston more than a decade ago, and I used my zipcar subscription way more often than I've ever had to use a communauto in fake london (a city no one would mistake for having good urban planning).

[retired]

Being Dutch* it's such a strange concept that you don't have to pay to bring books to your home. I hope that we will see that over here as well in my lifetime. It would do wonders to increase literacy in the population.

[footy]

I spent a lot of time in Latin America growing up, including in parts that didn't have public libraries. Your comment is shocking to me, I guess I just assumed most developed countries has libraries that function in similar ways. Wikipedia says there are about 600 libraries in the Netherlands, do you not get to borrow books for free?

They're integral to the fabric of society in my view.

[retired]

I looked it up and it will cost you €66 per year for unlimited book lending, e-books, audio books and magazines.

For low-income families and people up to 25 years old this drops to €48 per year.

[usui]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I never knew there were libraries with a subscription model. Hopefully that means the catalogues are really good and well-taken care of.

[gruez]

>Being Dutch* it's such a strange concept that you don't have to pay to bring books to your home.

There aren't libraries in the Netherlands?

[usui]

Is this a strange concept due to you being European or because of your particular European country? I thought public libraries where you can borrow books is a common thing in Europe, but I could be wrong since I just assumed that.

[bulbar]

It's super common in Europe, at least in Germany. But I have never heard that it's different outside of Germany.

[retired]

Correct, Germany also has the subscription model for taking books home.

[Gud]

It’s common in Europe with free libraries.

[AlexeyBrin]

> Being European it's such a strange concept that you don't have to pay to bring books to your home.

Pretty sure Europe is diverse enough that there are countries where the access to public libraries is free.