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Day 12: Charing Cross Library - It's never too late to learn #30days30libraries

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Their website told me that Charing Cross Library is 'a busy library serving residents, commuters and the local Chinese community' but I wasn't expecting to find it quite so buzzing on a rainy Sunday afternoon.Nor was I prepared for how well the library catered for the Chinese community.I saw it in the signs ...IMG_0846.JPGthe books, of course ...IMG_0850.JPGas well as through the decorations.IMG_0845.JPGOne man I tried to talk to gestured to me sadly that he did not speak English and then went back to reading his chinese newspaper.IMG_0847.JPGI spoke to Greg who told me that has been using this library for 24 years. Today he was here with his two daughters, who were half-chinese and half-french."I always come here. I've moved around London but I come back to this library when I go to Chinatown, for eating or shopping. This library has the best stock of chinese books in London.It's a centre for us. We can go to Chinatown and come here in just one visit.My daughters are half-chinese and they like eating chinese food. I tempt them to come here by promising them a tasty lunch afterwards."IMG_0852.JPGI explained to Greg that I was also half-chinese but that, when he asked, I could not speak or read chinese myself."Well, it's never too late to learn," said Greg and pointed me towards the library shelves where I could find a book to get me started. 

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

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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.IMG_0835.JPGI 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.IMG_0837I 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.IMG_0839.JPG"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. 

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