Write Around Tampa

Town ‘N Country Regional Public Library

7606 Paula Drive #120

Tampa

In the spirit of fresh beginnings and starting the year off right, I’m going to dedicate the month of January to exploring libraries. Places to work, write, read, relax, libraries have it all. As a Haitian-born writer friend of mine once said, “I couldn’t believe when I came to America there was a place that would let me take books home with me—for free!” Libraries are awesome. And I chose a fabulous one for the first day of the year.

Quality and pricing of food and drink:

There’s limited food and drink in the library, limited to a few vending machines. Water, soft drinks and packaged snacks only. They discourage actual “food,” but I usually bring something more substantial if I’m going to stay a while. Just be respectful, no smelly onions, and clean up after yourself, take trash with you when you go.

Are there enough outlets?

So many!

How’s the wifi?

Hillsborough County Public Library network, reliable but unsecured.

Will my muse come out?

Absolutely. It’s a library.

How long can I park it?

Open ‘til close, which is until 9:00 pm M-Th, until 6:00 on the weekend, closed Sunday. The seating options are aplenty. Couches, chairs, individual stations, group stations, study rooms, computer banks and rows of books books books. This library actually has one of the largest scattered seating areas I’ve seen in Tampa.

Final rating: 5 out of 5 laptops

Rachel Remick’s fiction and non-fiction stories have appeared in various magazines, among them Rosebud, Bluestem, Brushfire, and ellipsis . . . literature and art. A frequent contributor to women’s magazine Sasee, her writing has also been published in several volumes of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. She lives in Tampa.