The Library

Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I decided to try and get as much as I can completed on the BBC Top 100 list. I've currently just finished 79/100 and having just about exhausted our local library's supply of the list, decided to order a steady stream of books on line. Of course nothing in life is simple. I ordered the Lord Of The Rings in three parts and of course the last book came first. I went up to the local library yesterday to pick up my ordered books, only to find that the whole place had gone self service and you now had to use an ATM to get the books in and out. Talk about making things harder than they need to be!

Anyways I'm currently enjoying A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute and hopefully should get this finished within the next couple of days. Then onto The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett and hopefully by the time that I've finished those, The Fellowship Of The Ring may have turned up. Here's hoping...

Confession

I came home tonight to find an answer machine message from the library, telling me that my books that I ordered are now in stock. I got excited. Quite excited in fact. I have no excuse other than it's been a very quiet week and anything book related tends to make me very happy.

I can still remember the day my Mum joined me to the local library. I thought all my Christmases and Birthdays had come at once. I suddenly had access to hundreds and hundreds of books, instead of begging and pleading with my Mum that yes I had been good that week and that buying the next Roald Dahl book/Famous Five book would indeed make me very happy.

I spent endless summers biking to the library to get my next batch of books, sometimes I would go first thing in the morning and then revisit at night, having sat all day long reading. The freedom of youth and all that.

Of course as I got older, the visits wained and as I began to work, I bought my own books as apposed to borrowing them and very rarely stepped foot into any library, which is where my list comes in. Purchasing 100 books seemed a massive financial commitment, in order to complete the BBC Top 100 list, so I decided to go back to my old haunt.

So when I go to collect my books, I'll open the door and smell that old familiar smell and feel happy and safe and all those wonderful childhood memories will come flooding back. My list is a wonderful thing.