Day 15: Chipping Barnet Library - Without libraries what have we? #30days30libraries

Chipping Barnet Library was closed today.I almost walked into the doors, still hoping that they would sweep open but they do not move.They remained stubbornly closed.The librarians of Barnet are taking industrial action this week (on Monday at Mill Hill Library, on Tuesday at North Finchley and today at Chipping Barnet) against the proposed cuts to their service. This youtube they've made explains why. I met Stephanie who thought the library was open today, at the entrance.I asked her if she came to this library often."All the time. Avidly. Voraciously," she replied. "I'm a great reader. I come here about two or three times a week."We sat together on the bench outside the entrance to 'sun our brain cells,' as Stephanie put it."This is a purpose-built building," Stephanie told me. "There's space for reading, computers ..." She gestured to the space beyond the doors."I can't understand why reading is seen as elitism these days. Surely it should be something we are encouraging everyone to do. Don't they want to do that anymore?And another thing, I like to read and enjoy a book but I don't necessarily want to keep it forever. Even if I lived in Buckingham Palace, I wouldn't have enough room for all the books that I have read. In a library, someone else can enjoy it too.""I'm very much in favour of this strike. I went on a strike a few years ago and we marched up Barnet Hill. That was how much we meant it," Stephanie told me, with a smile.While we sat there, a man came with a bagful of books to return and a boy, still in school uniform, tried the doors."I came to use the computers. I'm in Year 10 and I'm doing my mocks next week," he told me.He stopped for a moment after we spoke, unsure of which way to go, before he walked away.

Day 14: Shepherd's Bush Library - He couldn't stop smiling #30days30libraries

In Shepherd's Bush Library today, I was handed a book.It was a Thai phrase book and dictionary.Its owner was a young child, perhaps not quite three.I had just had a new library card issued (a process of less than three minutes) and was now sitting in the slightly spaceship-like work zone, on one of the computers that sat in a row.The child toddled towards me and handed me the phrasebook and when I feigned delight, promptly went back to the shelves to bring me another.He seemed giddy that there was an endless supply, sitting, waiting, to be passed over.I believe we might still be there now, giving and receiving books, if his mother had not physically stopped him in the end."Thank you," I told him, each time.He didn't speak back.But he couldn't stop smiling.

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 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.