Once a month, she returns to pick up books and drop off new treasures. And just like the regular library, it costs not a penny to check out books. I knew I'd get a dog book. The rest of the kids hug their new books to their chests, then march off the bus, awaiting the pleasures of the written word to reach their ears in sweet softness at story time. But the Bookmobile is more than afternoon drop-offs for beginning readers.
Books are their lifeline.
Her work done at the daycare, Linda Hooker hops behind the wheel of the Bookmobile and heads northeast for Waco, where she'll find the one and only Ruth Vess, who has used the bookmobile service for 45 years, since it first began. The bus crunches onto the Vess driveway's gravel, and out comes Ruth Vess, with her 20 books from last month packed neatly in a brown grocery bag. She reads 'em all, cover to cover. I don't know where I'd be without the Bookmobile. Books are where I go in my mind when I need to relieve stress.