Chain Reaction: Hereford Cathedral's Chained Library

Hereford might be a lovely city.  I have absolutely no idea.  When I visited recently, it was largely obscured by rolling clouds of fog, roaming the streets and disorienting unwary visitors like me.  Perhaps it was part of a plot by Worcester and Gloucester to stop people finding Hereford Cathedral.  If so, I'm glad to say it failed and I eventually made it to the home of the unique chained library.

Talking in the Library

Earlier this week, I finished 'The Library of Unrequited Love' by Sophie Divry, translated from the original French by Sian Reynolds. It's a short book and, with a bit of effort, I managed to read it in 24 hours. Seemed the least I could do bearing in mind it wasn't on my original list... Ahem.

'The Library of Unrequited Love' is one side of a conversation.  One morning, a provincial librarian

'The Library of Unrequited Love'
By Sophie Divry
(MacLehose Press, 2014)

comes into work to find a reader sleeping among her basement shelves. At first surprised, then defensive, then loquacious, she begins to share her opinions on everything from the Dewey Decimal System to customer service, literary snobbery to her admiration for a regular visitor. Intelligent yet confused, passionate but trapped, she finally has a captive audience for her thoughts and observations.

I liked this book because it was unusual. It is, as it's cover says, a diversion, a little novelty that gets you thinking about the nature of narrative and story structure. The first person monologue made getting sucked into the librarian's story very easy. By the end, I didn't want to leave her as she felt like a real person in need of friendship and support. Soppy but true.

Throughout I found myself imagining the whole novella as a play and I really think it would work very well on stage.  Hopefully someone somewhere has plans for a production.

Overall, this book would be of interest to writers because of the narrative style used and librarians.  After all, how could anyone working in such a strongly stereotyped profession not be interested in this latest portrayal?  I think this would also be a good choice for a book group as, even though it's a short work, it leaves much to discuss about how easy it is to loose sight of the people we see everyday, isolation and the purpose of public libraries.

Now, back to Dr. Crystal!

The Writing is on the Wall

Earlier this week, I paid a visit to Sheffield Central Library in the North of England.  The site is also an art gallery and the Council has added some lovely quotes about libraries to the walls to inspire people using the building.  As some of you may not get the chance to go there, I wanted to share them with you, so please enjoy!

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library"
Jorge Luis Borges

"Libraries gave us power"
Manic Street Preachers

"A library is an arsenal of liberty"
Anon.

"There is no institution I value more in this country than libraries"
Michael Palin

"Logic will get you from A to B, imagination will take you everywhere"
Albert Einstein

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future"
Ray Bradbury

"A free library system is one of the trademarks of a civilised society"
Terry Jones

If you have any great book or library related quotes, I'd love to hear them! Tweet them to me @Girl_LovesBooks.