Libraries

On January 20th author Philip Pullman spoke in defense of libraries. (Many of the libraries in his area are likely to close due to budget cuts).

I too, have always loved libraries. Loved them enough, in fact, that I worked as a librarian for a while. I love the magic of disappearing into other worlds. Growing up the library was the place that had all the doors, hidden between the pages of books just waiting for me to find them.

For that reason I thought I would include a section of his speech (too long to put the whole thing here, so follow the link for the rest)...

Philip Pullman: "I still remember the first library ticket I ever had. It must have been about 1957. My mother took me to the public library just off Battersea Park Road and enrolled me. I was thrilled. All those books, and I was allowed to borrow whichever I wanted! And I remember some of the first books I borrowed and fell in love with: the Moomin books by Tove Jansson; a French novel for children called A Hundred Million Francs; why did I like that? Why did I read it over and over again, and borrow it many times? I don’t know. But what a gift to give a child, this chance to discover that you can love a book and the characters in it, you can become their friend and share their adventures in your own imagination.

And the secrecy of it! The blessed privacy! No-one else can get in the way, no-one else can invade it, no-one else even knows what’s going on in that wonderful space that opens up between the reader and the book. That open democratic space full of thrills, full of excitement and fear, full of astonishment, where your own emotions and ideas are given back to you clarified, magnified, purified, valued. You’re a citizen of that great democratic space that opens up between you and the book. And the body that gave it to you is the public library. Can I possibly convey the magnitude of that gift?"

I too, have always loved libraries. Loved them enough, in fact, that I worked as a librarian for a while. I love the magic of disappearing into other worlds. Growing up the library was the place that had all the doors, hidden between the pages of books just waiting for me to find them.