Love your library!

Why I love libraries.

Way back in 1960, when I was a just two years old, my Mother disappeared for a few days and then returned with a baby. From that day forth my father was expected to take his nose out of his books from time to time and help out by keeping me entertained while Mum was otherwise occupied. Dad was an academic man who showed very little interest in my dolls so, in a bid to keep us both amused, he took me down to Ruislip library and persuaded the nice librarian to issue me with my own ticket. Since that day I have never been without a library ticket.

Every Saturday morning we drove into town and while Mum took her place in the queue for the bakers, Dad and I would head to the library where I was settled into the children's section while he selected books for the rest of the family. He always chose his own books from the non-fiction section as he didn't see much point in reading a book that didn't teach you anything.

We all relied on the library for both education and pleasure and I continued to use the library for my two boys as soon as they could be trusted to treat the books with care. By the 1980s the children's section was bright and colourful and every week we would load up a whole stack of books to read in quiet times after lunch and before bed. They learnt much of their vocabulary from library books and were always excited when Friday came and we could get the next lot.

These days I use the library to provide fuel for my Instagram page and the picture above shows the books I selected this afternoon. In these difficult times where we are all starting to consider where our money is going, don't forget your library. There is always a steady stream of new books and if you don't like something, you just take it back! They really are one of our most valuable assets.

Comments

Violeta by Isabel Allende

Published: 2022, Bloomsbury Genre: Fiction Themes: South America, family relationships, business My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ If I ever tell my life story, I will take a leaf out of Violeta's book and make sure you understand that everybody loved me, and despite all sorts of questionable behaviour on my part, I leave the world as a winner. This is the story of a hundred year life. Violeta is approaching the end, but before she goes she is determined to write out her life story for someone she loves dearly. You don't get to know who that special someone is for most of the book, but that just serves to give the narrative a little twist. I didn't much like the character of Violeta but I understand that people who don't go round upsetting the apple cart don't make for very interesting stories. With such a great time span to play with, Isabel Allende had plenty of scope for changing Violeta's circumstances and adding in references to world events to keep the reader...

Holding by Graham Norton

Published: October 2016, Hodder and Stoughton Genre: fiction Themes: Ireland, crime, secrets, relationships, family My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ I went into the library looking for a book by Graham Norton as I keep seeing positive comments about his books on Twitter, and I felt I might be missing something. Holding seems to be his first book, and the library copy has a Radio 2 Book Club sticker on it, and I think it's fair to say that it's a perfect book for that reading group. It's a chatty style of writing that I could imagine would be how Graham would recount a tale if he was in conversation with someone, and there are sufficient strong elements to the plot-line to keep it interesting to the end. When I first started reading I thought it was going to be a bit thin on plot, as much of the story involved character descriptions, and I was starting to wonder how it was going to pull together. Then the dramatic events began to unfold and, once I could see how everyon...

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2021 Genre: Fiction Themes: Ancient Pompeii, slaves, brothel My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ If, like me, you spent most of your history lessons looking out the window and didn't really absorb very much about the ancient Roman Empire, nil desperandum, as you will still manage perfectly well with this book. Set in first century Pompeii, the story follows the life of Amara, a young Greek woman who has been shipped to Pompeii as a slave and then bought by the owner of The Wolf Den brothel. As the daughter of a doctor, she was bought up in relatively comfortable circumstances, but a series of terrible events turned her life upside down and she is now trapped in an endless cycle of fear and degradation with almost no hope of escape. Amara is one of a group of slaves working in the Wolf Den, and they do what they can to protect one another from serious harm, but Amara knows that if she wants anything better for herself, she must make the brothel ow...

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