As a kid, I read anything I could get my hands on. I devoured Reader’s Digest condensed books and Zane Grey westerns. I borrowed Grandma’s copy of Gone with the Wind, although Mom said it was too adult for me.

Once a week, upper-elementary students at my school were allowed to walk 2.5 blocks to the tiny brick library in Hornick, Iowa. It was there that I checked out the entire Nancy Drew mystery series and many other books.

Recently, a young mom in my rural community mentioned that her son had exhausted the contents of the two small-town libraries. She was considering buying an e-reader to keep up with his reading appetite.

An e-reader is a great invention. But it’s not the first vehicle designed to bring books to us. As a young reader, I looked forward to the day when the bookmobile would roll into town, bringing a fresh supply of reading material. I didn’t know that it began as a horse-drawn wagon in rural Maryland in 1905; it was a brand-new experience to my classmates and me.