Hi guys! Ellana has let me take over her blog for a week, so here is the week's first post. It may be the only post...I will see if inspiration strikes me again later in the week ;)
I'm Joanna, I'm 23 and I normally blog about going green so this is a bit of a change for me! I work in admin for an organic food company, with a looong commute, but that does mean that I get to spend a lot of time on the tube reading and daydreaming (mainly reading, it has to be said!). This post is about books, libraries and books :D
I had a stack of books on the table by my bed that was threatening to engulf me in the middle of the night (I'm sure everyone is familiar with this conundrum), so I've just battled with myself to tone it down a little - one I gave up on, one is on the charity shop pile, and the others I've decided are still 'to finish reading' ... so of course I went to the library on Saturday and got out more to read :D I read a variety of things - mainly history, biography, science, poetry, and the occasional bit of fiction. Ellana has been trying to persuade me to try ebooks, but I feel a little too attached to the traditional book to go that way just yet!
Anyway, one of my local libraries, the one I like to go to because it's the biggest in my area, has recently been refurbished. This in itself is quite impressive since so many libraries in the UK are now being forced to close. So I was quite interested to see what it was going to be like. Prepare for a small rant... ;)
The first thing I noticed was that next to the welcome desk there's now a small café. There's also a café in one of my other, smaller, local libraries. Maybe it's just my approach to libraries, but I think of them as quiet places where you can work, read or wander around the bookshelves, not somewhere you go to have a coffee and catch up with friends! Yet I also noticed that the majority of people in the library were young students, clearly there to attempt to revise but in actual fact just chatting loudly to each other. There is one 'Quiet Area', which I have to admit was appreciably silent, but the rest of the library was being treated just like a common room or a meeting place!
I go to the library to have a peaceful browse through the books, maybe sit down and have a flick through a few to see if I'm interested in them. And when I was at university I visited my university library quite frequently to study. But whichever library I'm in, I expect it to be quiet. Despite how good the library's refurbishment does look I still can't get over this change in attitude to what is and isn't acceptable in a library. I would love to be able to sit in a library without accidently eavesdropping in other people's conversations or grumbling to myself that it's not quiet! (I find it impossible to concentrate on reading when someone else is talking!)
And when I do manage to find a quiet place to read? ... Well, of course a post about books wouldn't be complete without book recommendations, so I thought you might like to know which books I'm reading:
- I've just returned to William Wordsworth's The Prelude after studying it a couple of years ago in my English Literature degree at Queen Mary, University of London, and I'm surprised that I'm quite enjoying it! This is definitely a poem that improves the more you read it, I think.
- I found Al Gore's Our Choice in an Oxfam shop the other week, and I absolutely love it! Whilst I was aware of the various technologies the world could employ to help reduce climate change, I didn't know about them in any detail. Gore's book is a thoughtful and detailed exploration of clean technologies, as well as the living systems that are impacted by climate change. I highly recommend it!
- Richard Fortey's book Earth: An Intimate History is one that I got out the library on my recent trip. I'm only a chapter in, and I think that it's not for the absolute beginner to geology, but so far it's a fascinating and interesting read, informing me about the earth whilst travelling around the globe to places such as Naples, Pompeii and Vesuvius, and Hawaii.
That's all for today guys! I would love to know what you think about my library rant! Do you prefer the traditional no-talking-at-any-times library, or the modern coffee-serving, talking-allowed library? Or maybe you're somewhere in the middle?
And I would love to know what're you're reading! Recommendations are always great - although please don't recommend Game of Thrones, I've heard many people raving about it but unfortunately all of the 10+ copies in my library network are all out on loan so that will have to wait for a bit! ;)
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Ellana for letting me take over her blog! :)
Joanna x
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Blog: www.everyweekisgreen.wordpress.com - do pop over and say hello, I love hearing from my readers and other bloggers!
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