A funny thing happened on the way to the library
Thursday, June 24th, 2010

'Whatever happened to your cardigan, Arnold?'

I met a friend who loves reading and we exchanged notes.  ‘I buy all my books from Amazon these days.  I flick through them all and if there are any I don’t like I just return them and get my card refunded. Easy peasy’. ‘Don’t you ever think about using libraries?’ I replied.  ‘God no, they’re just full of wheezing old men in dufflecoats and the great unwashed checking their emails’ I felt it was a pretty unfair description and shared my enthusiasm for borrowing books rather than always having to buy them. He stared at me vacantly as if  I’d just declared my support for Belisha Beacons, Trilby Hats and Listen with Mother. And then it dawned on me.  He wasn’t just using Amazon as an on-line shop, he was using it as a library.

I think libraries are great, but they must crank up their on-line appeal if they are going to attract the internet generation.  My own portal into their parallel universe of  literature and knowledge is through Libraries West.  It is not, it has to be said, the most attractive website. It seriously undersells its benefits and doesn’t highlight the fact that you can, for the paltry sum of 65p, borrow any book in the country via their Inter Library loan service.   You have free access to the on-line version of Encyclopaedia Britannia too and they will text you when your book is ready to collect.   I wanted to read ‘Walks and Talks of an American farmer in England’ published in 1852.  They tracked down a single copy from the Town Planning library at Sheffield University and it was mine to read for three glorious weeks. And all for the princely sum of 65p!

On the subject of good writing, here is the winning tweet from the Hay Festival as selected by Stephen Fry: “I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.” Brilliant.