Anita Anand - The Library Book. Anita Anand ... [Et Al.]

THE LIBRARY BOOK

The Library Book is published in support of
The Reading Agency

First published in 2012 by
Profile Books Ltd,
3 A Exmouth House,
Pine Street,
London ECIR 0JH

Copyright in individual contributions held
by the author

A complete catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library on request

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978 1 78125 005 1
eISBN 978 1 84765 840 1

Designed and typeset by Crow Books
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, Bungay, Suffolk

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Rebecca Gray James Brown Anita Anand Julian Barnes Hardeep Singh Kohli Lucy Mangan Alan Bennett Seth Godin Val McDermid Lionel Shriver Stephen Fry Bella Bathurst China Miville Caitlin Moran Tom Holland Susan Hill Michael Brooks Bali Rai Ann Cleeves Julie Myerson Nicky Wire Zadie Smith Kate Mosse Karin Slaughter Miranda McKearney

FOREWORD

REBECCA GRAY

The Library Book began with a simple idea: to celebrate libraries. As the book took shape, it became clear that the value of public libraries transcends the books on the shelves. Books and stories are lifelines, and libraries house those lifelines, making them available to all. They are important not just for the books, but for the space and freedom they provide, as well as the navigation and advice provided by librarians.I volunteer for a project run by Quaker Homeless Action, a mobile library. One of my colleagues, John, is, in his own words, a poacher-turned-gamekeeper. John used to borrow books from the library every week. The volunteers always looked forward to seeing him hes an enthusiastic reader, and wed always have a good chat about the books hed read, and what he might read next. Now he has a home, and he volunteers almost as often as he used to borrow books. Many of the people who visit us at the mobile library know John, and hes become a bit of a draw. People come to the library to say hello, have a catch up, and often, theyll end up borrowing a book too.Its perhaps surprising that about half the books we lend are returned, not a bad statistic given that most of our borrowers are itinerant. John says its a symbol of trust that when youre on the streets, and someone lends you a book, it builds your confidence and becomes an emotional investment. Weve had books returned, carefully wrapped in protective plastic, so that theyve stayed dry when the person who read them is soaking wet from the winter weather. Sometimes, though they have nothing of their own, our readers donate the books theyve been given elsewhere to be added to our library.For many of us, borrowers and volunteers alike, the mobile library is a meeting point, a place where all sorts of people come together, to have conversations youd never imagined, hear life stories that seem completely different to yours, or surprisingly familiar. Like all libraries, its a place where our minds open up, and the world becomes a little wider, and yet smaller too. Johns description of it is perfect: You go to the library on your own, but you end up talking to people, the librarians, other readers. And a conversation about a book becomes one about life, and you leave feeling that you arent alone after all.At the library, some of the people who share our city but are mostly ignored become fellow book-lovers, and its a great equaliser. In the rest of their lives, they are asking for help, or being told what to do; here they are just people who are welcome to take a book. And when you take away a book, youre taking an escape route from your own problems, or from the boredom of empty hours. John describes the library as a combination of things: its a place where practical things information, face-to-face contact, filling your time combine with elements that are harder to pin down, like escapism, imagination and comfort.John found that, as a homeless man, he was often perceived as a threat, or a nuisance. He says that the library made him feel part of a network, he made friends, and that gave him confidence, and the ability to trust people, where hed had none before. And those things helped him get back on track, so that now he has a place of his own, and a library card too. More than anything else though, the library has taught me and John that with apologies for the clich you can never judge a book by its cover. What people want to read often seems incongruous. A pair of biker-types taking away Thoughts of the Dalai Lama . People without access to instruments requesting sheet music. Aspiring poets sharing their work and then borrowing horror stories.Putting this book together as well as working on the mobile library with John has been truly enlightening. So many people who write books would never have even begun reading without the influence of these completely democratic public spaces. So many of the writers whove contributed describe the library as a place of liberation, a place where lives literally change, and change in a way infinitely more profound and common than in any other place I can think of. So Im very grateful indeed that so many authors have kindly given their work to this book, and their royalties to The Reading Agency. That money will go to their library programmes, which are described at the end of this book. By buying, or borrowing, this book, youre already supporting The Reading Agency, but if youd like to know more about their work, do visit www.thereadingagency.org.uk I hope you enjoy The Library Book .

THIS PLACE WILL LEND YOU BOOKS FOR FREE

JAMES BROWN

Do you read books? Hundreds of them? Are your shelves, rooms, bags, cars, offices full of books? Do you buy them on impulse at train stations and airports? Read the first few chapters before your journey ends? Do you come across a car-boot sale, second-hand bookshop or a charity shop; and walk away with books that look like bargains but only have a 25 per cent chance of getting read?Do you hunger for new releases by favourite writers, get lost scouring Amazon and eBay and fan sites for rare editions, or volumes you only just heard about? Then never buy them. Go through books in a night, a week, one sitting. Lose sleep over them. Clinging on till the very end. An end that leaves you in tears, angry or spent? Or do they drag on for months and months while other easier-to-digest stories come and go?Do you look forward to holidays because you know therell be a literary lottery on the hotels second-hand library shelf? Do you buy books like a habit? Do you find it hard to move them on after youve read them, caught between wanting to give them to a friend, or get some of the cover value back, and wanting to retain them as a physical memory of the time you enjoyed reading them?I do a lot of that and more. You can also add the following to books I have: presents I receive, the books I borrow from friends, and the ones that arrive from publishers and writers. But I did something on Saturday that might change all that. I joined a library. And I was shocked, exhilarated and inspired by the experience.The library in question has been there for a short while, in the high street of a small town I visit regularly, Rye in East Sussex. It is less than a year old, a huge, clean, well-stocked affair that now sits in what used to be Woolworths. It has computers, computer games, DVDs, talking books and most importantly, books. Thousands of them and, as my son, my girlfriend and I all individually noticed, hardly any of the books have ever been taken out. It couldnt be more different from the libraries I remember from years gone by.When I suggested joining the library my girlfriend laughed at me, and accused me of looking for a money-saving scheme, but it just seemed to make sense. Id walked past this big double-fronted shop full of literature many times and hadnt bothered to venture in. Meanwhile I was suggesting going to a table sale just to see if an old lady Id once talked to had any more Rebus crime novels and the g/f was getting antsy because shed run out of books by an author she was consuming at a rate of one every forty-eight hours.Ive not been a member of a library since I was about ten years old so I wasnt too sure what to expect, but I figured youd have to pay something to join and something to take each book out and it would take ages like everything else does to join or sign up for nowadays. So I was stunned when the lady behind the counter explained it was free to take a book out, free to join and you could prolong your borrowing of a particular book beyond the three-week deadline online. Plus you can order a book and theyll get it in for you for 80p. So that was it, all of its free. No wonder those that use libraries regularly are up in arms about proposed closures of them. It just strikes me as something a nation can boast about we lend people books for free.A couple of forms filled in, a card signed, a proof of address and boom we were in. Crime books masses of them le Carr, Michael Connelly, Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, David Peace. History books, war books, books by Sabotage Times writers, sports books. Im not too sure what my girlfriend was examining at the time, but my son was just staring at all the books and films, wondering what to take. It was like being in Waterstones, but free. Eventually I had to call time on the browsing as we were running out of reading hours. We left with a Michael Connolly thriller, an early le Carr novel, a kids book and the Diary of A Wimpy Kid film.Back home to read, great books in hand, no money spent and knowing the house wont have yet more books in that no one else ever gets to read. Next time youre driving or walking past your local library maybe break the habit and step inside. Its even cheaper than Amazon.Next page