From an early age, I loved books, but there wasn’t a lot of money around to buy them with, so I turned to the library to fuel my romance with reading. I read everything, quickly outgrowing the junior fiction section and inhaling facts about ballet, cooking, acting and black and white movies. At the same time as borrowing Lace by Shirley Conran, I devoured books in the young adult section by Judy Blume, Paul Zindel, and Lois Lowry. My local library was a home from home, and I remain passionate about them today. Here’s why:
1. They give everyone access to books. Even as a kid, you get your own library card and it feels kind of cool.
2. In a noisy world, libraries are a quiet space to escape into other worlds and think quietly. If your house is noisy, your local library is a calm, peaceful sanctuary.
3. Free Internet access – if you’ve run out of data or your broadband is down, you can connect free of charge.
4. There’s so much more than books. Now books are the main reason I go to the library, other than just loving being there, but you can also borrow films and music, read newspapers and magazines and find out what’s happening in your area.
5. Librarians – I did my work experience in a library when I was a teenager. As well as being surrounded by books, the fantastic librarians let me in on all their secrets. Shush, I’m sworn to secrecy.
6. I like to think libraries are filled with a core of magic. When you pick up a book and begin to read it transports you into another world. Thousands of books equal thousands of worlds.
7. Rock up to your library and you’ll find they host a range of events and activities from children’s story time to councillors’ surgeries and computer classes. Libraries are a community hub.
8. If you enjoy writing as well as reading libraries are an ideal setting for getting words on the page – and you have so much inspiration surrounding you.
9. Because libraries have lots of activities they’re a great place to meet people and make new friends. Why not see if your library has a book group and share your love of books.
10. They are free – well sort of, we pay for libraries through taxes but when you turn up it’s free to get in, you see a friendly face, and you’re not charged to borrow books. Everyone gets to take books home, reading them, return them and choose more. It’s a simple idea but one that made me who I am today.