Day 11: Richmond Library - I like that it's isolated #30days30libraries

Having raced across London, ducking past festival-going crowds, Saturday shoppers and lots of people laid down with plastic bags of picnics, my journey to Richmond Library had been a little fraught.I rushed through the open doors of the library, feeling waves of relief that I'd made it there before it'd closed.I was in.I knew what I had to do.I had to get started and begin talking to people. I needed to listen.I wanted to take some photos, and get a feel for the place.I'd left my husband waiting outside for me, sitting on a patch of grass, and had promised him that I wouldn't be 'too long.'But I just couldn't do it.As though in a trance, I took a book from the shelf - Malorie Blackman's 'Boys Don't Cry' - I can't believe that I haven't read it before now - and sank down into one of the sofas.I began to read.The library had cast a spell over me.I could almost hear its voice ...You will take a book.You will find a seat.You will read. There was a young man sitting opposite me - also sunk, into book, and sofa. Lost in another world.His name was Aaron."I *should* be coming here to work," he said with a wry smile. "I'm on an Access course at Richmond College doing Literature, Law and History and I come here often to work. But also to take breaks too."He smiled again and proffered his book.A Terry Pratchett title."I love Terry Pratchett. I read him all the time.I didn't used to come here but now I can't stop.It's quiet.And I like that it's isolated from everything else."Like me, Aaron hadn't been able to stop himself from entering into the world of a book, shuttering down the noise of the outside.And like me, he was in exactly the right place to do it. 

Day 5: Brighton Jubilee Library - If he walked in here now ... #30days30libraries

James came to the Jubilee Library to work on his book. It was a collection of illustrated stories about people he had met, the lives they had led."They do need more tables here," he told me. It's a sunny Sunday in Brighton and there's not a free seat in the house. I'd met Nikki Sheehan here who gave me a tour. Nikki told me it was very much 'towels at dawn' at the moment. There are a lot of revisers and many like to secure a place by spreading a desk space with papers and pencil cases (and perhaps a half-empty donut bag) and then disappearing for a while.Nikki took me to the children's library and showed me the 'climbing wall.'"Is it really one?" I asked Nikki, thinking there was nothing that the Jubilee did not have."No," Nikki told me gently but kindly took a photo of me trying to prove otherwise.We were meeting up with Tatum Flyn and Jane McLoughlin for some library chat in a space that had been reserved for us by the lovely librarian, Stephanie Coates.But before then, I spoke at length with James who was eager to talk.He came to the library at least twice a week to work on his book.He told me about a man called David who he was writing a chapter about. He'd met him at the V&A in the sixties when he'd noticed him drawing some of the statues and then selling his pictures.They'd got talking and James had learnt David's life story. He'd been prisoner of war and then a hugely successful restaurant owner in London - owning three houses and two boats - but had lost it all after taking on a shadowy partner into the business.I admired James' work and he drew a P in calligraphy for me but told me that David's work was much better than his."Have you any children?" He asked me.I told him that I didn't and when I asked him if he had any, he also shook his head but immediately started telling me about a little girl who he'd met in the library yesterday. She was wearing, James was keen to explain, a brilliantly impressive and bizarre put-together outfit that her mother had told him was all of her own choosing. He'd made a calligraphy of her name for her too.James got the ideas of doing his drawings thanks to the David he was writing about, who he'd met so many years ago.He had started making drawings at the V&A too after he had met David but in the end they had both been asked to leave the museum. James thought that was because of him."If he walked in here now, I would like to be apologise to him," James said.He looked towards the entrance of the Jubilee that was directly in view from his table.People came and went.James kept his eye on the door, searching for a face he might recognise.

Day 4: South Library - We have a lot of fun #30days30libraries

There was a queue for the photocopier at South Library today.One man told me that he only came to this library to use the photocopier or the computers.However, for Sam, it was all about the books. It was his first visit to the South Library today. He was local to the area but had never been here before. He was weighing up whether or not to borrow 'Slaughterhouse Five' when I spoke to him.A woman scrutinised a book with a large magnifying class, sitting in a corner, for a good ten minutes before deciding to take it.Due to the way the South Library is designed with very separate rooms for books, computers and children's books, it has a very different feel to other libraries that I have so far visited.The book room only contains bookshelves and a few seats ...... and the computer room, only tables and computers."It's quiet today," one of librarians told me. "I do think it has got quieter here in the last few years." Admittedly the book room was almost empty when I first arrived but in the space of five minutes, I noted there were several people lined up to use the photocopier, someone else enquiring about how to get a library card and a few borrowers returning and taking out items.When I asked him who he thought used the library the most, he told me,"We have a lot of schools here in the week. My colleague who runs the sessions has built up really good relationships with the classes and so the kids often come here after school too.And we run classes for under fives and babies for parents and carers. Wind the bobbin up, those kinds of songs, and a story. They get a prize if they know what a bobbin is."I asked him what he thought people got out of the classes.He invited me to come along to the one they were hosting next week. "Academically, it's good for motor skills, I suppose, and hand to eye coordination.But really, well, we have a lot of fun."

Day 1: Twickenham Library - My imaginary friend has powers here #30days30libraries

I managed to get in about five people's way taking photographs as I rocked up outside Twickenham library this afternoon.A family of a father and two sons, a couple of women with book bags slung over their shoulders, an older man who was standing in the doorway waiting to meet someone."Sorry," I muttered to the family as I stepped right in front of them, trying to get a straight(ish) record of this stone:I was almost taken aback when the older boy, who seemed about eight, smiled up at me. "Don't worry," he said.It's ridiculous but true that living in the capital you don't expect strangers to be friendly, let alone to forgive your clumsiness.Inside, there were a few armchairs set about the ground floor, each one nestled with person and book, bonded as though they were one.I decided to explore the children's library, partly I'm sure because of the friendly boy that had passed me as I entered.I found the family with the two sons. The friendly boy was called Henry and his brother was called Joseph.Henry showed me his favourite place to sit in the library, the seat by the window and so you could look at people going past on the street as you read, whilst Joseph preferred one of the soft green chairs, which he dubbed the poo-poo chair.They showed me some of the books they liked while their dad flicked through the shelves, adding more and more to their stack.One of them was a book which had pages designed in such a way that you could make a new creature out of two halves of different animals, an 'eleger' (elephant and tiger) or a 'zekey' (zebra and a monkey.)"Where else in the world would we be able to see a zekey?" I asked the boys.Henry thought for a moment. "Only in your imagination," he said."We come here about once every three weeks," their dad told me."We get out loads of books," said Henry. "I like to read them over and over.""It's a really great place," their dad said. I hung on his next words, sure that he might say something meaningful about libraries but he pointed towards the toilets. "Joe needed to go as soon as we got here, even though he'd just been five minutes ago.""Oh, yes," I said, my voice, I hope, only fading a little.Before they left, Henry confided that we were not alone. His imaginary friend Finley was with us too."He drives around in a tractor and likes to pull bins over and so he can eat leftover steak.""Where is he?" I asked."Well, because we're in a library, he is able to change size and make himself very, very small. He is sitting just there now."Henry pointed to the narrow slot in the machine where you place books to check them out."Why is he able to get smaller in the library?""Because all the books here give him powers," Henry said back.