Libraries
Someone just pointed out I can get free entertainment in libraries. Well - that depends on your library. My local library is not good. It has an air of misery and grime, many of the non-fiction books are falling apart and/or out-of-date. There are not that many anyway.
There are very few novels and quite big gaps in the shelves where there should be more books.
There are not that many shelves.
The children's section looks quite big - though that doesn't really help me.
I would like it to be the sort of library I remember from when I was younger but it really isn't.
Saving the libraries should also be about improving the ones that are there. The library in Peckham was great. The library in Finchley Central - on paper a less deprived area - is not at all up to scratch.
Some knobhead at Time Out recently wrote an opinion piece about why "we" don't need libraries as "we" are all middle class. I disagree vehemently.
There are so many households where there are few or no books. Rather than closing libraries and cutting off funding there should be a massive drive to get people to visit them and far more funding. I love eBooks, but I would really love more libraries with books I can touch.
Here, have a poem.
Libraries
My mother used to clean libraries,
I'd join her on the days I had off school
Down in the basement a forty watt bulb
barely lit the contents of the room
a sepia tinted scene with darkened edges.
I'd crouch by the door and
explore damp boxes
silver fish swam from the pages
the whole room was brown and green
with leather, dust and mould
corner books gelatinised, joined the cellar
walls, started to become the room.
I'd unclose as many pages as I could
letting out more insects,
giving the words some air.
Elise Harris
There are very few novels and quite big gaps in the shelves where there should be more books.
There are not that many shelves.
The children's section looks quite big - though that doesn't really help me.
I would like it to be the sort of library I remember from when I was younger but it really isn't.
Saving the libraries should also be about improving the ones that are there. The library in Peckham was great. The library in Finchley Central - on paper a less deprived area - is not at all up to scratch.
Some knobhead at Time Out recently wrote an opinion piece about why "we" don't need libraries as "we" are all middle class. I disagree vehemently.
There are so many households where there are few or no books. Rather than closing libraries and cutting off funding there should be a massive drive to get people to visit them and far more funding. I love eBooks, but I would really love more libraries with books I can touch.
Here, have a poem.
Libraries
My mother used to clean libraries,
I'd join her on the days I had off school
Down in the basement a forty watt bulb
barely lit the contents of the room
a sepia tinted scene with darkened edges.
I'd crouch by the door and
explore damp boxes
silver fish swam from the pages
the whole room was brown and green
with leather, dust and mould
corner books gelatinised, joined the cellar
walls, started to become the room.
I'd unclose as many pages as I could
letting out more insects,
giving the words some air.
Elise Harris