Love Your Library?

I was shocked to find that when I went down to Tooting Library it was closed and being completely revamped. This is partly good as it was a bit of an out of date branch but also quite sad as it previously felt like you were walking right back into the late 80’s especially as you could never get any books published after 1989 when you went in. What was secondly shocking was that this book lover hadn’t actually been to the library for almost two years, but then I do have a slight love hate relationship with them which will become more apparent as I go on.

So I went down to Balham library as it is now my closest to go and find some research material on The War of the Triple Alliance (long story) and also the following:
- Faceless Killers – Henning Mankell
- One Day In The Country – J.L. Carr
- Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
- Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsie
Well as I sadly could have predicted none of these were in the actual library and then when I went to the information booth I was shocked. I asked if they could bring copies of these into the library and they said yes they could but for £2.20 a book. Is this normal? I think that’s a bit wrong to be honest, needless to say I didn’t order them in, not when you can buy them second hand from a charity shop for less. I also couldn’t find any books on The War of The Triple Alliance and looking through the databases it appears there aren’t any… no one out there in the blogosphere knows of any do they?

What is good about libraries is that you can have a good long browse and find books that you wouldn’t normally necessarily pick up and read and give them a go which is just what I did as you can see.

Julie Myerson – Home
She is the talk of the literary town at the moment for some quite unusual reasons and rather than read the book that’s causing the stir and I am not sure I agree with but I thought I would give her a go. There was one book she wrote about a murder and how that affects a community but they didn’t have that. This one sounds great, I love the idea of finding out everyone who has lived in your home and then writing about their lives.

Doris Lessing – Alfred & Emily
I have always quite fancied this and though I have been told that Lessing can be quite hard to digest this book sounds so interesting. Alfred and Emily were Lessing’s parents and she re-writes history in part of the book by making them never meet and what would happen next. Unusual!

Victorian Murderesses
This just grabbed me with the second title ‘Respectable French and English Women Committing Unspeakable Crimes’ sounded a bit different and after The Suspicions of Mr Whicher I fancied some more ‘real crime’ but not one of those Fred West sensational books.

Betty Mindlin - Barbequed Husbands
Now when looking for books on The War of the Triple Alliance (which was between Brazil, where the Non Reader is from, Paraguay etc) I found this wonderful collection of fables and fairy tales from the indigenous people of the Amazon through Brazil. Looking at them briefly since getting back some of them are quite racy but I want to find out more about Brazil and what better than folklore?

Bruce Parry - Amazon
In the same section more about the Amazon from someone who trekked it… which is what I am doing later in the year. Oh I will be a book blogger from Brazil, which will be unusual. Hoping this book gives me some insight and makes me better prepared.

So what little gems have you found in the library you wouldn’t have read before? Do you love your library?

2nd April 2009

Note - This has become a question on Booking Through Thursday today "I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?"

So will add (as think have answered some of this above)that my local libraries arent the best but the new Tooting one promises to be though I kind of prefer the older libraries that you see in movies and read about in gothic mysteries. In fact its very much my aim to have one eventually, just need the gothic creepy mansion first, and the salary that can pay for it!