Horse 597 - On Books

In the local library near where I work there is a sign which says "Please Be Quiet in the Library". Now I had always wondered about this sign and the almost ironic placement of it.

Right next door to the library is a ramshackled house which has been approved for demolition; consequently just outside the window is a steady stream of jackhammer, bulldozer and concrete mixer noises. Obviously since they're outside the library they're not under any complusion to be quiet at all.

I also thought about the other extreme case here where a little lady in horn rimmed glasses with a blue rinse beesnest hair cut and wielding a well worn copy of a Barbara Cartland novel would go outside and in one of those high pitched whiny voices yell "Look here sonny Jim. Don't you know that people in here are trying to read and don't need lollygaggers and flibityjibbits like you polluting our ears with that cacophony"

There must be something special about people who are surrounded by books. Last night I was in Borders and had bought a textbook, so I decided to visit their coffee shop and read the opening blurb. Nearly 45 minutes later they were closing the store and yet again I've been met by one of those strange people with glasses. She asked me to leave the premises, but I rather get the impression that she didn't really want to; nor did she want to leave the precious books herself.

Ray Bradbury in Farenheit 451 speaks of a time when books are seen as outmoded and big screens dominate the walls of people's houses. Are we really that far into the future already? Are people that impatient that they just don't understand the quiet power of books?

My grandad had a room which he called his Upholstered Dogbox, the room was entirely unremarkable save for a wall which was a bookcase from floor to ceiling. Apart from the two reading lamps and his big desk, this was a room in which the 20th Century was not allowed to enter. The only thing that could be heard was the solemn ticking of the clock in the hall if the door was open. This room was most assuredly a cathedral to the printed word.

When I eventually shift home, I shall make it a priority to install a bookcase. Books aren't furniture in themselves but no house is properly furnished without them.