Every weekday, from nine to five, I am surrounded by books.

I’m not walking through shelves at a library, making sure each book is in their proper place. And I’m not milling about a cozy bookstore, putting together thoughtful displays of seasonal favorites.

From nine to five, I work in a warehouse where bins are stacked four high on pallets, the towers of royal blue waiting to be opened. Inside each bin are books, CD’s, movies, vinyls, board games, you name it, and it’s my job to make sure each item is placed into another bin. That bin will end up being loaded into a truck, brought to a library, where a librarian or clerk will put the bin’s items into patrons’ hands.

I wasn’t expecting my first full-time job to be at a warehouse. In the year I spent job searching, my lofty career plans slowly descended into more realistic territory with each rejection: from editorial assistant applications at massive New York publishing houses to part-time library jobs.

While I was trudging through the job search, I stayed at the part-time library job I’d had since I was a junior in high school. I was lucky enough to be able to come back whenever I was home from Calvin on break, and they welcomed me after graduation with open arms.

When I wasn’t applying for jobs, I was at the library, shelving books, trapping holds, and mingling with coworkers. Through each conversation, each time I flipped through a book while shelving, and each library event I saw bring together individuals from various backgrounds of my city, I realized that I would not mind spending most of my days in libraries.

A pivot to library job applications led to a few promising leads, then dead ends, then rejections.

Eventually, I landed an interview at an organization that is responsible for transporting many of Illinois’s interlibrary loans. After the interview, I was given a tour through the facilities, surprised at the vastness of the warehouse and at the clumps of people diligently sorting book after book into hard plastic bins.

Since my librarian dreams first began to bloom, I imagined sitting at a desk, being responsible for the ordering and cataloguing of materials. Or maybe I would go the teen librarian route and share my love of young adult literature with others.

I never imagined lifting a stack of books out of my fiftieth bin of the day, sweat dripping down my face since the industrial fans can only do so much.

It’s almost been five months since I started my first full-time job sorting books in a warehouse, and I don’t regret accepting the job offer.

Books have been a part of my job description since I was seventeen. Being around books, even just seeing a cool illustration on the cover or a cheesy summary in the folder, has added a bit of color to my work shifts. Reading and writing are two of my greatest joys, which is why teenage me saw working at a library as the perfect escape from customer service hell.

And I got to go from a library where I’d laugh with coworkers over the latest non-bookmark item I found squashed in a book’s pages (I should never be finding more than one book with a plane ticket inside) to a place where I celebrate with a coworker whenever I encounter my favorite dinosaur-sports-themed picture book series.

My new job may not be in an airconditioned building with shelves of neatly organized materials, but there’s something fulfilling about opening a bin filled with books that are going to countless other places and knowing exactly where they go. For the most part.

To an extent, I even value my sore feet and legs, the dustings of dirt on my legs, arms, and face from dealing with containers that have touched way too many surfaces. They’re physical reminders of the work I did today.

In the future, I may retreat behind a desk or table, hopefully with a master of library sciences. But the work I’ve done for years and continue to do now, the thousands of items I’ve held, laughed over, paged through, and put away will always be with me, reminding me that the best way to launch a career with books is to work right alongside them.

Liana Hirner

Liana Hirner graduated from Calvin in 2024 with a bachelor’s in writing. She currently lives in her hometown of Aurora, Illinois and works full-time in a warehouse filled with books waiting to be sorted. Writing is her first love, followed swiftly by lattes and dark chocolate.