I have been fascinated with libraries for the longest time that I can remember. As school going kids, we had to buy at least one of the four books recommended apart from course material. And at the end of term, we had a reading quiz competition where the teacher basically prepared a short quiz of 40 questions from those 4 books, that you were able to answer only if you had read the books thoroughly. So, that ensured that you not only read your book but exchanged the books you’re your classmates. And one of the books was always in Hindi. I dreaded to read because that did not come naturally to me as our mode of education was almost entirely in English. What started as reading just 4 books annually in class 3 or 4 soon turned to lending books from school library that were issued for a period of 2 weeks to eventually making my own library card for the Central library in my city. My mom is a huge reader and would always encourage (and still does) me to go to the library and let me pick the books I wanted to read. I was in love with the Central Library, and I could imagine myself becoming the head librarian someday. What a cool job to have! I could reserve a book for myself as soon as it came to the library, I could read all day and get paid for it. And there is something nice about the smell of new books. The old ones do smell good, but they smell funny with age and moisture (sneeze).
I had started with Barney and Friends, then came Clifford, The big red dog. This was followed by Books by our beloved Ruskin Bond and The Magic School Bus by Joanna Cole. By the age of 10-12, I had read most of the Famous Five and Secret Seven series. Then came a time when I was hiding Nancy Drew in libraries because you could only issue 2 books at a time and there were desperate times when you wanted a particular book but that was always issued. Although much later, I realized how I hated it when I would find books in the shelves where they were not supposed to be, yet I think it was acceptable then to put a book upside down or in the adjacent shelf so that you could find a book for your next visit. This habit soon came to a halt when I had to prepare for the high school examinations and for the entrance exams to engineering college. But once in bachelor’s I again caught up with reading. Books by Dan Brown, Stieg Larson, Michael Connelly, John Grisham were some of my all time favorites. I guess most people from my bachelor’s would recall me sitting at the back bench, minding my own business reading a book if the lecture(r) was uninteresting or failed to capture my attention. Although, I was not regular then at visiting the library but I hoarded my share of books.
Over the past few years, I have consciously picked up on my reading game again. The brunch book challenge by HT is something that I feel motivated about. One is supposed to read at least 60 books in a year (any format, or language) and tweet them. The motivation? A curated gift hamper that contains even more books! As a voracious reader, what more could one ask for?
My tryst
with libraries continued when I moved to the EU for my education, and it got
rekindled again in the recent month, when I have been spending vast chunk of my
day at the state library. The libraries in Germany are not meant just for
borrowing/lending books or digital media or for reading books but you have
designated spaces where you can gather to do group work or study alone, prepare
for an exam or finish an upcoming report. If you are enrolled as a student at a
university, you have access to the library of the University which itself is
huge but apart from that you can make your own library card for a meagre fee of
10-20Euro per annum and enjoy the perks of above-mentioned things. There is a
downside to the libraries in smaller cities though for international people as there
is very little option to choose from. Just 2-5% of the books are in English and
French and most of the titles are in German. And it is very rare for you to
find bestsellers amongst these books.
But this is
not why I felt the need to write this blogpost. I digress. I was pleasantly surprised
to see the pensioners coming to the library to read newspapers and magazines.
It seems to me as if it is part of their routine to visit the library every
morning at around 10 am either alone or usually in a group of twos or threes. The
library here has a sitting room on the first two floors, where visitors can
come with their personal belongings like a laptop or books etc. without having
to submit the backpacks at the entrance and use the space to work. These days
when I am working from the library, I am always surrounded by people in their
60s or 70s reading regional and national newspapers with utmost sincerity or solving
a crossword at times. There is a change in the scene at around midday when
young adults come during their lunch hours, although there are not that much.
On the
floor above, is the section for young kids, and there is always a book reading
session going on, I feel. One can hear them clap or giggle every few hours. I was
so pleasantly surprised by this and felt equally nice about people embracing
the culture of using local libraries. Coming from India, I had never seen people
in this age group visiting libraries or even for that matter I am not sure how
many kids do use the library. I think it is more used by people coming from
humble backgrounds whom you would see at the library. The rich or the privileged
get their kids new books or tabs as you grow. This makes me think that as an
ecosystem we do not encourage the essence of Library. It is not just a place
for you to read but it can be a good social activity for people across all age
groups to come visit with friends, read, discuss, have a coffee, and enjoy.
I was
discussing with a friend about lack of Library Culture in India and how even
the cafes use books as props for marketing by attracting visitors (mostly
non/pseudo readers), to have Instagram likes and popularity. I digress, again.
Point
being, I was impressed by flock of old people who visit library everyday here.
This not only keeps the older people active, physically but also literally!
Also, most libraries always struggle to stay afloat, as they try to maintain a
level of service. The budgets are trimmed back, the salaries are definitely not
lucrative. By being a member, you get to access 1000s of books for a minimum
fee, you could donate old books or participate in events or just use this as
another social activity with your friends. On a personal level, you can always
find a cozy, comfortable space, access to Wifi, and it is overall a great place to read,
work, research or just relax 😊
Thank you so much aastha for taking me on a nostalgia ride back to school days. I still have scholastic books and The three musketeers. Hope this blog thing will someday turn into serious book writing. Keep up the good work best wishes from a fellow bibliophile.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed! Thank you for the kind words :D
DeleteI wasn't much interested in school library. I wasn't a fiction or magazine reader. I liked science and tech fields, but those were never issued to us. The only peace time I could have in library was when DVR was played. Else, it was boring. But but but, I remembered two books during the school time: "The three musketeers" and another whose name I never remember, but this quote:
ReplyDelete"But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite-resource- and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the Whale’s warm, dark, inside cup-boards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldn’t, and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed. (Have you forgotten the suspenders?)"
Look at you writing word by word. And I thought you said you didn't remember much from school :p I liked 'How the leopard got it's spot' from- Just So Stories by Kipling. I wanted to mention Moby Dick and Popcorn Pirate, I had so many books to mention but then thought I'd restrict myself to a few. And I never liked Three Musketeers 🙈
DeleteThis is me, "one who shall not be named" AS mysterious and mistaken for someone else. I just want one thing from any of your friends living there. Go to your room, take a book and put it in another shelf upside down! And thats not it. Do this daily for a month or two. Unless you swear that you will give good interview. I hope thats motivating!!
ReplyDeleteNoooo that would be a nightmare, I hope it does not come to that.
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