Mostly a day to stay inside and dry but always keeping an eye out for those brief gifts.

In the end, no video conference call this week with school. School staffing unavailability led to a late cancellation. Apparently school will organise another teacher – parent day in a months time.

Ok move on, it’s the weekend.

As a kid I remember one thing really clearly from childhood weekends. Virtually every Saturday morning I would walk to the town’s library. The northern coastal town looked old and tired yet the library was a bit of an oasis. On the outside it looked like any other slate grey concrete block. But on the inside it looked brand new. Clean, bright. It even had a little indoor goldfish pond in the middle of the children’s section. I would select a book and sit beside the pond. For a couple of hours it was an escape from the claustrophobic reality. A working town cut off from the world by the sea on one side and polluting industry on all other sides. Hardly anyone went on holidays. It seemed like most adults would venture as far as the local chemical and steel plants to work, then it was back to the town to live. It did feel so claustrophobic. The only two escapes. The freshness of the beach and books in the library.

Fast forward far too many decades and it was like life repeating itself. Now miles from that old existence and a pandemic hit. Suddenly a picturesque village on a hill became isolated. Month after month of enforced isolation and it felt claustrophobic again. In the modern life there was thankfully a few more escape routes. One of which was again a library. This time quite a bit smaller and an awful lot redder than the old town library.

The village library

The converted old telephone box is the village community library. So a bit like when I was a child, excitedly checking out books to read, let’s see what books are in the library today. Sadly no goldfish to share the books with this time, it’s probably going to be with cows in the farmers field.

Spot anything you like ? Pleasingly the books I’ve donated on a few occasions are not there. Hopefully someone in the village is reading them as I write this.

I can’t begin to tell you just how great it felt during the lockdown to be able to walk a few yards to a little red library. To pick a book and have an adventure. Just like that little boy from that northern town, having an adventure in a library.

49 thoughts on “Reading”

  1. The Margaret Atwood and Diana Gabaldon caught my eye. Two fantastic authors.

    We have “Little Free Libraries” in our city that homeworkers set up. But your phone booth conversion far surpasses ours in terms of design and eye catchiness.

    I had to laugh at the sign that points to the defribillator! Must really be a heart stopping read.

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      1. I love them I miss seeing them. When we arrived in London’s from our 3 day busy journey from.Greece my friend photographed me in one outside our new flat share, it bought back so many memories.

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  7. We’ve seen similar libraries on our travels when house hunting. The phone box on the corner was removed a little while ago. I guess no-one used it as it was card only anyway and not well maintained.

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  9. A few gems in there! I immediately spotted ‘Cats Eye’ by Margaret Atwood – one of my favourite authors – excellent book. I see a PD James and I think I spotted a Tess Gerritsen (Rizzoli and Isles author). John O’Farrell is pretty good too, although I’ve not read that one. What a wonderful resource. Thanks for showing us around, Gary!

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  14. Libraries are treasures indeed! And although digital books are convenient and don’t take up space, they don’t compare to the feel and smell of a real paper book.

    Stunning photo Gary Kermit Superdad!! Looks like you found more than one treasure way up in the north!
    💌💌💌

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  15. I love seeing these! We’ve got a tiny one near me, it’s about a 10 minute walk from me. I wish it was larger, like this though. When I go to donate a couple it’s always full, but it also means I can see the books have gone.

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