'Book Stalls, NFT/South Bank, London' by andie butt

Book Stalls, NFT/South Bank, London, a photo by andie butt on Flickr.

I read an interesting blog post yesterday about how libraries appear to be on the decline and sadly today I appear to have experienced it for myself. My local library is fantastic and my daughter loves visiting and borrowing books. We were going to a different town in the same county today so I thought I would take her there instead to return her books and get new ones. It’s a lovely new library and looks like it has a lot to offer but the children’s section was so disappointing. There was hardly anything to choose from. We did manage to get a small selection to borrow so went off to get them checked out. Sadly there is no personal service at the library it’s all done at a self service issue desk. I know that times are changing and this is how things are done now but it made me sad. It felt more like taking money out of a cash machine than borrowing a library book. And it meant that my daughter didn’t get to do her usual job of handing over her card and the books and having a little chat with the librarian. And of course the books don’t get stamped when you do it this way. You get a receipt and have to have the write the return date in yourself. Nothing too taxing but all a bit silly really when there were staff actually wandering around looking bored. Anyway, I apologise for my little moan there. My blog just seemed like a good place to get this off my chest!

It also means a good excuse for a booky photo! I love this one because I love the book stalls you see along the South Bank in London. Wouldn't it be great just to spend the afternoon flicking through all these books. I bet there are some real gems in there if you look hard enough. When I look at this I can really get a whiff of that second-hand book smell. But what I love the most about this is the light - it's just beautiful.