Libraries and Life

[James Marinero]

I was posting a link on another forum (sailing related). The link was to an obit about a sailor by the name of Edward Allcard (gave up sailing at age 91, took up skiing at 92, died in July aged 102). Anyway, he'd written several books about his considerable adventures. Here's the point - one of the responses to the thread was:

'When I was 16 years of age I was in the Manchester Public Library to borrow some books. As I walked past the Librarian she called across to tell me that a new (forget the author) detective novel had arrived. I asked her how she knew I liked reading that sort of book. She said that was the only section I borrow. I somehow resented her knowing that so went to the book racks and closed my eyes. I walked around by feeling the rows of books with my hands outstretched. I must have looked strange, a blind boy in the reading section. Anyway, I staggered about for about ten minutes around the shelves then stopped and with my eyes still tight shut I selected a book. I booked it out and thought "that will show her". The book was a single-handed transit of the Atlantic by Edward Allcard in his yacht Temptress. The start of a life long obsession.

I have had many occasion to curse that day but more occasions to thank my luck.'

It's an amazing anecdote. Libraries can change (or at least shape) lives.

My local library is now automated, but I do give them free copies of my books - not that I expect them to change lives. :-(

 

[MaryA]

If I find myself in any heavenly afterlife, I will walk through the pearly gates, turn left and spend eternity in a vast library with secondhand bookshops across the street. I can't imagine a future without libraries and book shops in it. My family all have homes overflowing with books, and my first library was a small Edwardian home converted into the Turner Memorial Public Library, set on the main road of a town in a British colony. I knew most of the books there off by heart.

If I find myself in hell, it will be for unpaid library fines.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've long believed in the power of libraries to educate and entertain. Just think of the 19th-century public library movement, supported by such philanthropists as John Passmore Edwards, Henry Tate and Andrew Carnegie for the edification of the masses. I became a librarian because of my own love of books, but also for my belief that people should be informed...rather than kept in the dark and fed bullshit by the powers-that-be!

Heaven is a library or at least a bookshop. Strange how a book can smell great when it's brand new and also when it's old, worn and a bit mildewy.

I spend an hour each week in my local library at Saint Columb Major, which is holding on by the skin of its teeth after local government cutbacks. I browse the shelves and do a bit of people watching. Although I'm 63 and write violent crime novels, I'm always surprised to see ancient readers, little old ladies in their 80s, perusing the latest slasher or forensic thriller; it's hard to scare the elderly, I guess, as they've lived through so much.

At the other extreme, it's wonderful to see the joy that toddlers get turning the pages of picture books, how a five-year-old giggles at a story read to her by granny and the thrill on the faces of children taking their books to the library assistant to be date stamped—and she lets them stamp the label which takes on the air of a sacred rite.

 

[AliG]

Well done to Paul. I feel very strongly about libraries, their value and that they should be promoted, not destroyed. I write to MPs, give books- but do not go often enough to my local library. Your post reminds me that I should try to be of a more hands-on, turning-up type of supporter. On the case.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

What a great story, @James Marinero! My early years were certainly shaped by the non-fiction section of the local public library (actually the Bookmobile, usually, as we lived in a rural area). I've been pleased to see our local libraries here being upgraded--we have a wonderful selection of libraries to choose from, now. I like how libraries have become, not just places for silent contemplation of the printed page, but community centres, where kids go to hang out after school, groups meet to discuss books and other things, cultural events take place...a community centred around its library must be a good thing.

 

[James Marinero]

I've long believed in the power of libraries to educate and entertain. Just think of the 19th-century public library movement, supported by such philanthropists as John Passmore Edwards, Henry Tate and Andrew Carnegie for the edification of the masses. I became a librarian because of my own love of books, but also for my belief that people should be informed...rather than kept in the dark and fed bullshit by the powers-that-be!

I come from a Welsh steel and mining town where education was very important and libraries vital. This importance was driven by the socialist principle of using education to counter trickle-down bullshit (and, to some extent, religion). I don't share the politics but I fully embrace the principle.

 

[Marc Joan]

And to cheer you all up, here is a picture or two of some proper bookshops. Think I'll chuck these onto FB too.

 

[AliG]

You can almost smell those books...yum